We may be changing how we approach reading in an educational setting, at least for some students. My language-disabled son was in a reading program at his Wentzville school that allowed him (and his peers) to choose their own reading materials. They had guidelines such as Lexile scores, the goal being to enhance/increase their skills, but they were free to choose the genre, topic, author, etc. By contrast, his older sister (same school) was able to choose her own reading materials only some of the time and there tended to be more restrictions. On the other hand, I don’t recall ever being able to choose my own reading material in K-12. Now my young sons, in grade school in VT, get to choose all of their reading material.
Bottom line: you’re right. People read more when they get to choose the material. Reading is subjective! One guy’s boredom is another man’s rapture. In my experience, once one develops a love of reading, their interests expand naturally. Perhaps Trump never developed that. It would explain why his vocab is so poor and why he prefers Twitter’s “short and sweet” style.
I’d be interested to know how many other students across the country get to choose their own reading material at school and how often. What a cost-effective way to nurture a reader.
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