Hey guys , I’m here with a discussion post with Camile and 10 other bloggers.
The point is to have a discussion on the reading required in high school , its consequences and what improvements can be made.
- Required readings
Required readings were either the best of your English class or the worst. There seems to be no middleground.
Because the classics can be utterly beautiful or mess up with your life.
The required reading consists of the following books (I’ve generalised across the countries I’ve searched)
- To kill a mocking bird
- Scarlet letter
- 1984
- Catcher in the rye
- Romeo and Juliet
- Farenheit 451
- Animal farm.
- Purpose
The purpose of required reading seems to be similar through out the world. Kids “need” to read these and know these.
The purpose for us to read them were
- Happiness (some of us really enjoy classics but sorry to say I’m not some of us)
- to get a decent grade
That’s the introduction and lemme start with the stuff we deal in India.
My country’s system
I’m from India and there are multiple educational system here. Most common one is CBSE which is run by Central Government. And ICSE , which is England’s educational syllabus i guess . And there are separate boards for each and every state (28 different kinds of boards).
I won’t pretend I know all about the educational system because I don’t. I’m just gonna give you guys a preview of the information I collected.
Dini has a system with reading outside the text book upto 4-5 books and get questions about the particular book they read and she had to do a book report too.
Shruti on the other hand , had enthusiastic teacher and her school followed Oxford English textbooks , she has read many classics .
So we do have a lot of required reading in common but not everyone enjoys that. And I for one and many other “state” syllabus students didn’t have required reading at all.
India’s main problem comes with different study systems and diversity. We weren’t required to read or learn but we were supposed to “study” for grades.
Most of us didn’t have enthusiastic teachers to encourage us or a system that requires to read.
That ought to be changed. My reading habits mostly came from my parents who were big bookworms themselves. But I won’t say reading is altogether opposed .. It’s not encouraged in a way that its supposed to be.
You guys can check out Sam’s post here . And look out for Ben’s post here .
What do you guys think about this?? Is required reading encouraged in your place??
Happy living
Ambivert words 
Indians need to read more. While in school, I don’t remember having a seperate library class. It was mostly taken over by mathematics or science classes. Though, in class 9 and 10, we did have Julius-Caesar and village by the sea as our textbooks (ICSE). Our English teacher never encouraged us to read books. We had a library in school, but nobody was allowed to take any book home. 😒 When I started working, I was the only one with a reading habit at my office. My teammates even made fun of my book-buying spree saying that he would prefer to spend 1000bucks on a movie ticket rather than buying books. The system might have changed now, it’s been more than ten years since I graduated from school.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for sharing your opinions Rekha!! I had a few ICSE friends and they had more knowledge and studies. But unfortunately I couldn’t contact them for info. And I’ve graduated like 3 years ago but the matric system a.k.a the state systems hasnt changed much. For that too , i had some data planned but nkt collected 😅. Thank you so much for sharing your opinions and reading my post❤❤❤
LikeLike
I agree with you. ICSE students are made to learn a lot of things. I moved form ICSE to state after my class 10 exams and I had a tough time adjusting. We were never asked to write essay-like answers till class 10. And in state, marks are given based on the answer length. 😂 It continued in my engineering course too.
Kids should be asked to read more classics. There are so many good ones out there. I don’t understand why some school kids prefer cellphone over a book. Just recently, I told someone that I write book reviews. And that person asked me if I earn any money from it? When I said no, they said, what’s the use? Unless one earns money, anything they do isn’t worth it!! 😒
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m totally okay with the essay answers ❤. Yeah irl people are always saying the same thing to me if they see my books or blogging 😔. I don’t think they’ll ever be able to understand 😂
LikeLike
Sorry, I am writing essays here. 😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
There is quite a bit of required reading in US schools – or at least there used to be when I was there. I was very glad that I was made to read certain British classics, even some American classics, because I wouldn’t have read them otherwise later in life. They laid a good foundation of knowledge for building upon, not for school, but for reading other types of literature and because authors frequently refer to classics in their own books.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah in many ways US actually manages people to get to read!!! Our folk just focus on getting nost out of the “science” and get their admission😔. Thanks for reading my post ❤
LikeLike
That’s really interesting! I always like reading about other countries study systems and education systems. I think we actually changed educational systems when I was in my second year of high school, I think? But then again I was never interested in learning or school (just in how many books I could read), so I never really focused on how the system worked 😄
I agree with you on the enthusiastic teachers – they do make a ton of difference. Like most of us in high school couldn’t care less about Shakespeare, but our teacher made it fun and she made us care about it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I actually studied in a “changed” system but it wasn’t much honestly 😂. Thanks for reading my post❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think in the new system it focused more on writing of essays and more difficult answers? Which I didn’t mind – more writing and all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mine was the opposite 😂. They took the essay system to trash . We literally had no essays in composition. The system focussed on semester system for schools and it didn’t end well. Glad I finished early😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s sad! Essays were my favourite!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mine too😅😅. I was devastated 😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good post, Dany! I also had required reading in school as part of our “syllabus”, but nothing heavy-duty (as I was in CBSE). But instead of being forced to read, we should be “encouraged” to read.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m from the UK and a massive emphasis is put on reading. In my old school there was a list of 50 books that they thought students should read and there were rewards for people who completed all 50. We did book competitions, we got book tokens on world book day and in GCSE English we studied a play and two novels. Some people hated it but others loved it. I didn’t like how we had to actually memorise the novels and play because it sort of sucked the joy out of it but even so, actually reading as a class was fun.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s really awesome!!!! I think that’s really a good way. Not everyone loves chem or math or anyother and not everyone is going to get a career out of it but we are forced to study that. English should be like that too. Sucking the fun is not good but it might be something everyone ought to do u know ?! Anyway thanks for reading my post bee❤❤❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hmmm England’s syllabus is a wee bit different in terms of the English Literature GCSE which is mostly what my post will be about, because I have opinions on this from personal experience. Required reading for exams sucks and I don’t like it xD
As for required reading in general, I think it’s great to encourage kids to read however sometimes it can be a forced sort of reading, which may end up back firing.
LikeLike
Under CBSE we didn’t have a required reading as such but we had two classes every week all through the high school where we were required to read and borrow books home. So I got to cover a lot of books during that period.
LikeLike
Required readings are heavily implied in the areas that I live in. Almost all of the books that you listed are books that my school has made us read. I am actually reading Scarlett Letter right now and just finished Animal Farm.
LikeLike
That’s what I like about blogging in general!
Being a canadian, I would’ve never had known what was going on in India, and we can compare a little — though mine was through a “second language” course.
The way ours did it was mostly like Dini – We all read a book where at some point along the way the teacher will do a kind of “wrap up” of what we should have read thus far, and at the end we’ll have a questionnaire/test on it
LikeLiked by 1 person
I 100% agree with your comment on teachers. It matters so much how the teacher handles the required reading. It’s interesting to read about how it works in India. And again, I agree, reading for a grade only (if you’re not one of the lucky students who actually enjoy the classics) sucks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for taking your time to read my post❤ . And yeah teachers and taste on books matter so much for required reading😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think a lot of it depends on the school and the board. I was in a CBSE school till 10th. Reading was actively encouraged and we had a separate period where we went to the library and read.
I moved to State Board in 11th and that school did not care for English at all. Mostly because it was boards time and who cares about anything other than marks, right? I myself stopped reading in 12th. The day I finished my boards, I rushed to my library and checked out 4 books lol. 😅
LikeLiked by 1 person