Brandon Colcord
Professor Frank
English 110
October 18th, 2021
Things To Keep In Mind When Approaching A Higher Education
“Deep Reading” needs to become a part of your life to make your life easier. During my highschool career I never really took learning seriously. Honestly, I never even gave it a thought that there are different ways to approach a book that can expand the way you think of things. Recent articles by: Patrick Sullivan “An Open Letter To High School Students About Reading” and Scott Newstok “How To Think Like Shakespeare” both explain how us as students aren’t receiving a proper education. Patrick Sullivan, an English professor at Manchester Community College in Manchester, Connecticut, Gives us a way in which we can expand our minds through reading, making it so you can receive an outrageous amount of benefits from it. On the other hand, you got Scott l. Newstok who believes life’s experiences and your personal encounters is enough to become successful. Both authors got me thinking about how seriously I want to take my education.
“It’s not what you know it’s who you know” mindset will only get you so far.Newstok says, “People on today’s left and right are misguided on this point, making them strange bedfellows. Progressive educators have long been hostile to what they scorn as a “banking concept” of education, in which teachers deposit knowledge in passive students. Nonliberal reformers – the ones who have been assessing you for the past dozen years-act as is cognitive “skills” can somehow be taught in the abstract, independent of content. And Some politicians seem eager to get rid of teachers all together and just have you watch a video. You, having been born when Google was founded, probably take it for granted that you can always look something up online. ” (Newstok, Pg. 4, Par. 3). It explains how knowledge is easily accessible, and the knowledge required to become successful isn’t taught to us through teachers. He is saying that you can’t teach life skills within a classroom, you need to actually go out and experience it. Which he is not wrong about in a way. I just don’t believe life experience would be enough. Being told what to do and what you need to know in a classroom format is helpful because it holds students responsible in a way. Having no teachers is a terrible idea and so is spending all day looking stuff up online. That would make it so students wouldn’t really retain a thing. However when Newstok says, ”Part of what made Shakespeare collaborate so well with others was his radical sense of empathy; he probably would have called it fellowship. “Researchers have found that literary fiction improves a reader’s capacity to understand what others are thinking and feeling.” Shakespeare developed his empathy through his schoolboy exercises of “double translation,” when he was impersonating the voices of others, as explored in Lynn Enterline’s ork on character making (ethopoeia). ” (Newstok, Pg. 7, Par. 2). He is trying to explain that you can develop a sense of empathy through books that are not real and that will in return improve your ability to communicate, which to me personally wouldn’t be a bad skill to develop. Only issue I have with this mindset is you can’t just depend on others’ knowledge to succeed, can you? Throughout Newstoks article he explains to students, college students to be specific that expanding your mind like Shakespeare and depending on others knowledge to move forward which honestly is kinda what we already do. I see myself relating to a few of his claims, I just don’t think having a mind like that will help me personally push forward in my higher education.
Patrick Sullivan is right and students need to embrace reading as a part of their life. During my time reading his article I couldn’t help but feel like he was talking to me directly. When Sullivan says, “there has also been a great deal of research recently on the difference between “deep learning” and “surface learning.” Much of this research focuses on how students engage with the text they read for school. A key variable in this research is how students position themselves as leaders in classrooms. Some ways of engaging with text provide very powerful opportunities for growth, while others provide very limited opportunities. In one study, sociologist Judith C. Roberts and Keith A. Roberts found that many students see “reading” as simply forcing one’s eyes to “touch” each word on the assigned pages, and many students candidly admit that they did not even read assigned materials at all. Many often readonly to finish rather than to understand what they have read. Students may favor this kind of approach because it requires minimal effort. Obviously, however, with minimal effort comes minimal rewards.” (Sullivan, Pg. 2, Par. 6) He is saying how our current education in the classroom, depending on how we are asked to engage with the text, determines the amount of knowledge retained and how most students hate reading because of the way we engage with the text currently. He is reminding me of how I was as a student in highschool, reminding me that I didn’t take it seriously. I have a strong belief that me being unsuccessful in my highschool career had a lot to do with not reading much or having a “love” for it. So when he says, “I also have to admit, in the interest of full disclosure, that we as teachers have probably helped create some of the aversion to the reading many students feel. This made me realise he wasn’t ashamed to admit the reason I hated reading throughout school was due to the way it was taught and when he explains “Instead of mesmerization, recall, and shallow engagement, “deep reading” requires reflection, curiosity, humility, sustained attention, a commitment to rereading, consideration of multiple possibilities, and what the education scholar Sheridan Blau has called “intellectual generosity.” These are characteristics highly valued in the workplace.” He made me realise that these are the benefits that come out of deep reading. Why would somebody not want a solid working mind with a solid job?
In conclusion, both articles were worth the read and gave me a completely different point of view on my own education in college. I already took the Newstok route in highschool and that didn’t exactly pan out so well. Ended up with a few boring jobs and having to make a much bigger decision with my life. Now that I am attending the University of New England to expand my education Personally I think it be best to pursue a route that new and although it does seem pretty scary, I think developing that love for reading by using the skills Newstok was talking about than focused my attention on reading as much as I can in my spare time and doing it in a way that actually benefits me as a whole, like Patrick Sullivan wants us to do. Although Sullivan doesn’t take all the other subjects into account, he does however explain to us students how reading doesn’t just benefit English class. Sullivan uses a variety of subject matter experts who explain that developing reading abilities help increase your abilities in other areas. Also increases your ability to communicate. Which to me would be super helpful when it comes to participation in classes. “Thinking Like Shakespeare” isn’t enough in my mind to help with my higher education.
Work Cited
Sullivan, Patrick. “An Open Letter To Highschool Students About Reading.” American Association Of University Professors, vol.102 no.3, May-June 2016, No Pg.
Newstok, Scott. “How to Think Like Shakespeare” The Chronicle Of A Higher Education, August 29, 2016, No Pg.
