Real Books vs. Textbooks
Books are not used to educate students enough. Sure, textbooks are used plenty - they provide a good amount of empty, easy to forget facts and numbers. A sentence about how many died in WWII. A sentence about the time period when Lincoln was president. A sentence about a genocide (without actually saying the word genocide, of course.) A page about Russia's faults. A sentence about America's faults. The date this bomb fell. The number of people it killed.
Isn't that fascinating? I know you'll remember that for the rest of your life. Not.
Textbooks aren't memorable. They aren't helpful. They give very important facts in one or two sentences and move right along. Students cram to memorize the information the night before the test and forget all of it the next day. I can safely say that actual books - especially novels - are so much more memorable than endless pages of textbook.
I've read a lot of books this year. Some of the boring ones I don't remember much about, but most of them I remember very, very, well. I think pretty much everyone agrees that they remember a book they read a couple years ago way more than a textbook they read a couple years ago. Why? Because you're living it.
I'm currently reading The Jungle, a novel about the Industrial Revolution. It's honestly pretty disgusting, but it's getting a little less so as it progresses. Anyway, it feels like I'm there - it feels like I'm living there, watching Jurgis sob, hearing Ona scream, feeling the hunger and the pain and the emotions this family goes through. I'm understanding the emotions these people are facing, and I can see that this is a real thing, a real trial for so many people. It's not just, "Swarming with flies in the summer, bitterly cold in winter, diseases festering all year long, Packingtown is a rough place." That's what the Omnibus textbook tells me it is. (Written by Joanna Hensley.)
It's actually, "'I have spent every sent of my money - all that I had in the bank; and I owe the doctor who has been coming to see me, and he has stopped because he thinks I don't mean to pay him. And we owe Aniele for two weeks' rent, and she is nearly starving, and afraid of being turned out. We have been borrowing and begging to keep alive, and there is nothing more we can do." (From The Jungle.)
See what I mean? The textbook tells me its a 'rough place.' The book takes me with the characters and shows me they are literally starving and don't have a single penny - oh and also, while this conversation is taking place, a baby is being born and they have no idea where the other kids in the story are - they couldn't get home from their jobs because the snow is so bad.
The book doesn't tell me what is happening, it shows me, and I don't forget the images presented in the stories I'm reading. I can actually understand why Packingtown is rough, I don't just believe it is because a sentence tells me it is.
Now obviously there is such a thing as over exaggerated truth, and this book could easily be an example of that - I'm not saying that you should believe every single thing a novel says. But it definitely makes things easier to understand than the textbook. Swarming flies and cold weather doesn't sound so awful. But losing family members, not getting home, have absolutely no money - that's what The Jungle is showing me.
Books are just better. They aren't telling, they're showing, you can see what is happening and the hardships and trials. You can see how the people were affected and how they reacted to those challenges. The books contain emotions, not just raw facts in a single sentence.
I honestly think that books need to play a larger role in schools. They teach so much about the time period, the reactions and the emotions, and through that you also get the facts - and you won't forget them. I hope that someday schools will begin see the absolute benefit of reading and discussing novels or accounts that took place during the time period being studied. It doesn't just have to be for English or History, but those are good subjects to start with. Introducing books where the students grow attached to the characters is hugely beneficial to the understanding of the topics. Seeing actual people go through the motions is an entirely more educational process than just reading that actual people went through the motions.
It might be more work - but it's completely worth it.
Isn't that fascinating? I know you'll remember that for the rest of your life. Not.
Textbooks aren't memorable. They aren't helpful. They give very important facts in one or two sentences and move right along. Students cram to memorize the information the night before the test and forget all of it the next day. I can safely say that actual books - especially novels - are so much more memorable than endless pages of textbook.
I've read a lot of books this year. Some of the boring ones I don't remember much about, but most of them I remember very, very, well. I think pretty much everyone agrees that they remember a book they read a couple years ago way more than a textbook they read a couple years ago. Why? Because you're living it.
I'm currently reading The Jungle, a novel about the Industrial Revolution. It's honestly pretty disgusting, but it's getting a little less so as it progresses. Anyway, it feels like I'm there - it feels like I'm living there, watching Jurgis sob, hearing Ona scream, feeling the hunger and the pain and the emotions this family goes through. I'm understanding the emotions these people are facing, and I can see that this is a real thing, a real trial for so many people. It's not just, "Swarming with flies in the summer, bitterly cold in winter, diseases festering all year long, Packingtown is a rough place." That's what the Omnibus textbook tells me it is. (Written by Joanna Hensley.)
It's actually, "'I have spent every sent of my money - all that I had in the bank; and I owe the doctor who has been coming to see me, and he has stopped because he thinks I don't mean to pay him. And we owe Aniele for two weeks' rent, and she is nearly starving, and afraid of being turned out. We have been borrowing and begging to keep alive, and there is nothing more we can do." (From The Jungle.)
See what I mean? The textbook tells me its a 'rough place.' The book takes me with the characters and shows me they are literally starving and don't have a single penny - oh and also, while this conversation is taking place, a baby is being born and they have no idea where the other kids in the story are - they couldn't get home from their jobs because the snow is so bad.
The book doesn't tell me what is happening, it shows me, and I don't forget the images presented in the stories I'm reading. I can actually understand why Packingtown is rough, I don't just believe it is because a sentence tells me it is.
Now obviously there is such a thing as over exaggerated truth, and this book could easily be an example of that - I'm not saying that you should believe every single thing a novel says. But it definitely makes things easier to understand than the textbook. Swarming flies and cold weather doesn't sound so awful. But losing family members, not getting home, have absolutely no money - that's what The Jungle is showing me.
Books are just better. They aren't telling, they're showing, you can see what is happening and the hardships and trials. You can see how the people were affected and how they reacted to those challenges. The books contain emotions, not just raw facts in a single sentence.
I honestly think that books need to play a larger role in schools. They teach so much about the time period, the reactions and the emotions, and through that you also get the facts - and you won't forget them. I hope that someday schools will begin see the absolute benefit of reading and discussing novels or accounts that took place during the time period being studied. It doesn't just have to be for English or History, but those are good subjects to start with. Introducing books where the students grow attached to the characters is hugely beneficial to the understanding of the topics. Seeing actual people go through the motions is an entirely more educational process than just reading that actual people went through the motions.
It might be more work - but it's completely worth it.
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