More Book Friendly Classes

Madison Kovach

More stories from Madison Kovach

(Photo Credit via vinylsilhouettes.com)

(Photo Credit via vinylsilhouettes.com)

Jefferson should offer more open reading elective classes to help fulfill the interests of more students and give them a class they would want to take, rather than a class that they need to take in order to graduate.

In 2013, a NCSL study showed that 9.3% of public schools actually offer more than one reading elective. This shows how very little public schools offer more than one open reading elective for their students to take.

Zack Gamble stated, “Yes, I think that more public schools should offer more than one reading elective, because it helps the students that have more interests in books have more of an opportunity to have a class they’ll enjoy.” Gamble also said, “It’ll give them a class that they want to take on their own, rather than one that they need to take, also it might get more students involved in reading if a class like this is offered.”

An open reading class sounds amazing and schools should defiantly offer this. This class would also be very beneficial to students in multiple ways.

— Julie Kline

Recently a poll of ten Jefferson-Morgan students were asked if they were permitted more than one open reading classes, would they take it or not. All ten students polled answered yes. This shows just how many students want to be offered more than one open reading class.

Freshman Bria Jamison said, “Reading is such an amazing thing, but it really is not pushed through schools as much as it can be.” Jamison also said, “The Reading/Library Club could defiantly benefit from these extra classes. Classes like this would really hit the interests of many readers too, giving them a class that they would actually be fully interested in.”

Genres such as science fiction, romance in novels, sports fiction, and comedy would provide students with an opportunity to both read and write about different topics. Classes that provide the students with a chance to read and write more would benefit a few different things; the library and how much use it is to the school, the Reading Club, and how much each student actually reads.

Freshman Caitlyn Dugan is an avid reader. “My favorites would have to be Fantasy and adult fiction. They are so great to read, and they always make me have a good day.” Caitlyn also stated her favorite book, “My favorite book in the fantasy genre is probably ‘Harry Potter,’ anyone one of them from all the whole series is great.”

According to information found on Readers Digest, reading puts your brain through a “workout”, but unlike any other workout, this one is different in its own way. Ken Pugh, president and director of research of Haskins Laboratories stated, “Parts of the brain that evolved for other functions—such as vision, language, and associative learning—connect in a specific neural circuit for reading, which is very challenging.” Open reading classes would challenge students in a good way and get more parts of their brain “working out”.

Schools should offer more open reading electives because many more students would end up seeing the world more clearly because they have more of a understanding of what the world is about. Also, they would learn more about society and fantasy worlds and would receive a better education.