A number of thoughts have merged together recently on the subject of reading, so in several posts I will weave them together. I suspect that I am preaching to the choir, but so be it.
In response to my post about Where Writer’s Write and David McCullough’s wonderful garden writing shed, Staci left a challenging comment in which she made reference to Mr. McCullough’s commencement address to this year’s graduates of “Boston University”. (I searched fruitlessly for the whole address, stumped by my inability to successfully google this. Astute readers will spot the problem immediately. It’s Boston COLLEGE, not University. If that was a test, Staci, I failed.)
She quoted part of that address, a portion of which I reproduce here:
“Make the love of learning central to your life. What a difference it can mean. If your experience is anything like mine, the books that will mean the most to you, books that will change your life, are still to come. And remember, as someone said, even the oldest book is brand new for the reader who opens it for the first time. You have had the great privilege of attending one of the finest colleges in the nation, where dedication to classical learning and to the arts and sciences has long been manifest. If what you have learned here makes you want to learn more, well that’s the point. Read. Read, read! Read the classics of American literature that you’ve never opened. Read your country’s history. How can we profess to love our country and take no interest in its history? Read into the history of Greece and Rome. Read about the great turning points in the history ofscience and medicine and ideas.
”Read for pleasure, to be sure. I adore a good thriller or a first-rate murder mystery. But take seriously –read closely –books that have stood the test of time. Study a masterpiece, take it apart, study its architecture, its vocabulary, its intent. Underline, make notes in the margins, and after a few years, go back and read it again.“
In searching for this, I stumbled across the comments made by the commencement speaker to the 2003 graduating class of Hope Presbyterian School. Here is a curious excerpt:
Delight in all of life. Be curious. Pursue your loves and interests. And whatever you do, never be content with what you know.
This is a great big creation full of interest and God’s glory. Embrace it, come to know it, learn it. Hence, read, read, and read some more. Don’t let your brain turn into cottage cheese. Investigate, study… delight in life and in the world God has given….
The development of your curiosity, your love of learning, your passion for life… these things are more important than the degree you are receiving tonight.
I don’t suppose I could build a case for plagiarism, and to say ‘Great minds think alike’ would be unnecessarily degrading to Mr. McCullough. But it is something of an affirmation to hear someone of stature echo my own thoughts.
But why do such things – challenges to educated people to read – need to be said at all?
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Anonymous
No, it wasn’t a test. I’m not a test-giver. Clearly, I am a mistake-maker. Sorry!Staci
Anonymous
“…why do such things…need to be said at all?” I can’t adequately answer that question, but if statistics are to be believed, these are indeed startling:1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years. Source; publishing guru Dan Poynter, via http://www.humorwriters.org/startling stats./html (University of Dayton)It’s inexplicable. I cannot imagine such a life. I’m with Thomas Jefferson who said, “I cannot live without books.” And with Babington Macaulay who is quoted thus: “I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.”–ae
Matthew
There was something that intrigued my interest about the statistics. If only 1/3 or 33.333% of all high school graduates never read another book then are colleges no longer making their students read? Because according to The Wall Street Journal “more than 45% of recent high school graduates enroll in four-year colleges” Someone is confused… Statistics unlike facts are not stubborn things.mghttp://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009535
Randy Greenwald
MG, a man after my own heart. Typed this comment after returning to his new house from a visit to the local library, thrilled to find that it was only a block or two away. Statistics can be very fluid things, and can be used greatly to obscure the truth. However, Math not being MG’s strong suit, it is possible, it seems to me, if 1/3 never read again, that leaves 2/3 who do, and out of that 2/3 might come the 1/2 who attend college. Of course, then, if you add the 1/2 of college graduates and the 1/3 of high school grads who never read another book, you would have about 50% of the world never reading another book.We could go on all day and night. But my question becomes, is there something in our education that kills the desire to read? Or is there a reading gene that naturally predisposes us to read? Or whatever.