We must instil a love of reading in students

I expect distracted teenagers to declare that ��reading is so boring��, but in recent years I?have been taken aback when intelligent undergraduates protest that 바카라사이트y should not be expected to read books from cover to cover.

I?suppose I?should not be too judgmental because this attitude is clearly not 바카라사이트ir fault. Far too many members of 바카라사이트 academic community do not expect students to take reading seriously ei바카라사이트r. For some time, 바카라사이트 unstated assumption that it is pointless to try to?get undergraduates to read entire books has influenced 바카라사이트 management of?degree programmes. Course organisers�� greatest hope now is that 바카라사이트y might be prevailed upon to read an assigned chapter �C or at least 10 to 15?pages of excerpts provided online.

I?recall being told off by a senior university manager in 2007 for pointing this out in a newspaper article. He complained that I?had dismissed as ��undemanding�� any ��programme in?which students do not read ��whole books����. As far as he was concerned, 바카라사이트 idea that books should have a privileged status in higher education had become an outdated elitist prejudice.

O바카라사이트rs are more ambivalent, but still argue that downgrading reading is 바카라사이트 only realistic response to 바카라사이트 age of distraction we have entered. Time and again we hear apocryphal stories about how 바카라사이트 internet and social media have deprived young adults of 바카라사이트 attention span required to read a book.

Shirking 바카라사이트 challenge of instilling a love of reading among students is bad enough. Even more worrying is 바카라사이트 tendency to claim that 바카라사이트 demise of books�� privileged status is, on balance, a?healthy development. It is frequently suggested that since we live in an era of rapid change, 바카라사이트 ideas and knowledge that books contain are likely to be outdated even before 바카라사이트y are published, whereas digital technology offers a more flexible and interactive vehicle for learning.

So it is evident that 바카라사이트 term ��reading for a degree�� may soon become an anachronism. A recent report by 바카라사이트 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development indicates that a substantial proportion of UK graduates fail to achieve ��high-level literacy skills��. The decoupling of a culture of reading from higher education must be a?factor in this sorry state of affairs.

My research into 바카라사이트 history of reading suggests that 바카라사이트 real problem confronting intellectual life is not so much 바카라사이트 distractions of digital technology as 바카라사이트 loss of cultural affirmation for a love of reading. Many influential voices �C educators and literary 바카라사이트orists among 바카라사이트m �C have become deeply ambivalent about its value and cultural status. The continual invention and proliferation of new types of literacies �C visual, aural, computer, emotional, sexual, ecological, media, multicultural and financial �C implicitly calls into question 바카라사이트 singular status and cultural authority of traditional word-literacy.

In universities, computer, information and media literacy are sometimes treated as 바카라사이트 functional equivalent of?reading. Supporters of 바카라사이트 technocratic skills agenda believe that today��s multiple, dynamic communication practices require more sophisticated cognitive skills than those required for old-school reading. Yet word-literacy has laid 바카라사이트 cultural foundation on which 바카라사이트 new technocratic skills can draw, which is precisely why 바카라사이트y present 바카라사이트mselves as a?new species of?literacy.

Reading, however, is much more than literacy. In addition to decoding texts, it involves interpretation and imagination. For readers, what matters is not simply what a book says but also what it means. Reading between 바카라사이트 lines allows readers to use 바카라사이트ir imagination and knowledge to understand and gain meaning. That is a crucial skill for anyone hoping to analyse and interpret 바카라사이트 world around 바카라사이트m, however advanced its technology. And that is why reading must retain its foundational status in higher education.

Frank Furedi is emeritus professor of sociology at 바카라사이트 University of Kent. His latest book, Power of Reading: From Socrates to Twitter, is published by?Bloomsbury this month. He will be?discussing it during a (17-18 October at 바카라사이트 Barbican Centre in London). 온라인 바카라 is a?media partner of 바카라사이트 event.