Reading for enjoyment is being destroyed in schools

Teachers are teaching children how to read, but in the process are teaching them to hate reading (“Why Kids Aren’t Falling in Love With Reading,” The Atlantic, April). Reading analytically is a vital skill, but the obsession with doing so has too often destroyed the enjoyment.

The above illustrates the clash between cognitive and affective objectives. Teachers are under enormous pressure to produce measurable results on standardized tests. It’s far easier to measure cognitive outcomes than it is to measure affective ones.  As long as that is the case, I expect to see fewer and fewer students reading.

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