'Don't read.' Well, that's kind of a problem
Dennis O'Brien
Issue date: 10/30/03 Section: Opinion
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"Don't read," was the response.
One of our editors had gone out looking for responses for a student question of the week, the question being "What was the last book you read and what did you like about it?" or something of that ilk.
Mostly, people responded with quiet shaking of their heads and hands, quiet denial. And hey, that's okay. Maybe they didn't feel like answering questions.
"Don't read," was the one response, written sloppily onto a note-pad, meaning "I don't read."
When she came back to the office, everyone got kind of a kick out of this. In fact, the only response she did eventually get was from a professor...an English professor, so it's not like he could have said, "Don't read."
I laughed too, because, well, it is kind of funny. That was, however, before I got home that night - before I had a chance to think about what that meant.
Now, maybe I'm something of an alarmist. When the World Trade Center was attacked, I thought I was an extra in Die Hard 4: Die Even Harder. When we invaded Iraq, I spouted off to anyone and everyone I knew that we were entering a new Vietnam, and I said that I would lay down money that one way or another if there was a draft, I'd wind up catching it because I'm the annoying, complaining soldier who is kind of a secondary character until he gets shot in the face by a sniper.
When I found out that Stallone was making a Rocky VI, my immediate gut reaction was, "Oh God, it's not going to stop here, is it?"
Like I said, I'm an alarmist by nature. So when I saw these two words in scraggly blue print on lined, white paper, my first thought was, "Literacy is dead."
In French class this morning, Dr. Vitello was musing about the wonderful days before television, but then digressed by saying, "Well, I guess I kind of like being around to watch the fall of civilization."
Funny stuff, everyone chuckled. Still, is Vitello right? More and more, it seems that we are not a literate culture.
One of our editors had gone out looking for responses for a student question of the week, the question being "What was the last book you read and what did you like about it?" or something of that ilk.
Mostly, people responded with quiet shaking of their heads and hands, quiet denial. And hey, that's okay. Maybe they didn't feel like answering questions.
"Don't read," was the one response, written sloppily onto a note-pad, meaning "I don't read."
When she came back to the office, everyone got kind of a kick out of this. In fact, the only response she did eventually get was from a professor...an English professor, so it's not like he could have said, "Don't read."
I laughed too, because, well, it is kind of funny. That was, however, before I got home that night - before I had a chance to think about what that meant.
Now, maybe I'm something of an alarmist. When the World Trade Center was attacked, I thought I was an extra in Die Hard 4: Die Even Harder. When we invaded Iraq, I spouted off to anyone and everyone I knew that we were entering a new Vietnam, and I said that I would lay down money that one way or another if there was a draft, I'd wind up catching it because I'm the annoying, complaining soldier who is kind of a secondary character until he gets shot in the face by a sniper.
When I found out that Stallone was making a Rocky VI, my immediate gut reaction was, "Oh God, it's not going to stop here, is it?"
Like I said, I'm an alarmist by nature. So when I saw these two words in scraggly blue print on lined, white paper, my first thought was, "Literacy is dead."
In French class this morning, Dr. Vitello was musing about the wonderful days before television, but then digressed by saying, "Well, I guess I kind of like being around to watch the fall of civilization."
Funny stuff, everyone chuckled. Still, is Vitello right? More and more, it seems that we are not a literate culture.