My Relationship with Literature

 

Colegio Catarinense, Florianopolis - SC / Brazil
Source: http://www.colegiocatarinense.g12.br/

It has been years since I graduated from high school, more specifically in 1994 – do the math and you will probably realize how old I am! It is also worth mentioning that I went to school in Brazil, therefore, I am not certain if the methodology in which we approached literature has any similarities with how it’s taught here. Based on how we are doing currently, I can tell that if it was anything like this in high school, then it was definitely different in Brazil.
At my school, teachers would assign a book and give students around a month to read. We did very little analysis or evaluation. After reading the book, students would then take an exam about the story, main characters, their roles, scenarios and etc. Looking back, I believe we could have taken a much more critical thinking approach and less of the reading-because-it’s-on-the-curriculum one – at least that’s how it felt.  



Example of a literature book assigned in high school
Source: Google Images 

Reading literature was always more for obligation than pleasure. We were not given choices as to what books to read. I read the same books my older sister read years before, and my younger brother years later - we all attended the same catholic school. I enjoyed reading comics more than anything else. It was a fun treat from our grandparents and we loved it! I guess because we saw it more as a reward than an obligation.
Nowadays, I have a different frame of mind, mostly because of my 7 year-old a son who is a wiz in mathematics but struggles with language arts. I hope approaches reading from a different angle. I try to help by buying books that are interesting to him (cars, superheroes, Pokémon) as well as subjects that intrigue him (volcanos, sharks, tornados). I never use reading as punishment so he won’t associate reading with a negative situation.

Reading is indeed fundamental.  Reading literature though, is a way of taking you away from your reality and venture into someone else’s world.