2008 Woodie Awards
I feel bad making fun of the person I'm about to make fun of, but I can't help myself. A woman who looked to be about 27 came into my other place of employment, which happens to be a bookstore, a while ago looking a little overwhelmed with excitement.
"I want to start reading!" she said.
I think I said something along the lines of "What, I mean wait, what?"
So, she simply told me she had made the decision that she was going to start reading books, and she wanted me to help her find one in a place housing roughly 200, 000 books (none of which she ended up being particularly interested in reading).
It took me a long time to go through the store with her because she had never read a book for fun and wasn't sure what types of books were available. I honestly didn't want to know if she had ever read a book because that is just upsetting.
Let's be honest about this. Although this situation may be shocking to the many people who do read for pleasure, a whole lot of people think it's great that they don't bother to read and think about things. I mention this woman because I meet a lot of people who think reading, and apparently education as it's implicit, is stupid.
The question here is why are people getting through grade school and high school without having read a book and it not mattering?
This relates to my problem with a lot of the 100-level general education courses in college.
They are the classes that have a lot of people because the rigors of opening a book haven't yet weeded out the majority of the population who got into ISU on the basis of a pulse, strong or not. How did these people even make it through the high school process? And beyond that, they made it past university admissions, which is another story for another time.
These are the people who on Facebook have listed under their favorite books: "WHAT?! I DON'T READ! LOL!!!1!!" And, yes, the "1" is usually floating amidst a series of exclamation points because apparently these people don't read what they type either.
I just really don't know what to think when I see that. Congratulations?
Maybe I'm a little biased because I do partake in the hobby regularly called reading, but I don't think the expectation that people read some sort of book occasionally is unreasonable or pretentious in any way.
I have come up with a solution to our society's growing illiteracy problem, and I think it's rather delicious!
I propose we bring Pizza Hut's Book It program for elementary school children to the college.
Sara Kuhlman is a senior journalism major from Englewood, Ohio. Her e-mail address is skuhlman@indstate.edu.
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