Why we put books on a pedestal (and how to take them down!)

I have a theory about books and reading.?

It’s only a theory of course, but hear me out...?

When I was at uni, my course tutor said to me –??

“I can always tell which students are dyslexic, because of the weight of their rucksacks”?

“What do you mean”? I asked, puzzled.?

“Dyslexic students carry so many books around in their rucksacks, as they think they have to read everything, know everything”.?

The anecdote is at the heart of my theory about reading.??

We put books on a pedestal.?

At primary school we are taught to read, before we are taught to draw, dance, listen or code. Our reading ability is measured and assessed against our peers.??

At secondary school, we are still accessed (largely) by our ability to read exam questions, set texts, history sources, algebra etc.?

We’re ‘taught’ Shakespeare without being shown how to decode the language. So most 14-year-olds are unable to access the rich and visceral language, dynamic characters, and conflicts. So, Shakespeare remains inaccessible to the very people he was writing for in the first place (those of us in the cheap seats!).?

As a result, we put Shakespeare (and all our reading experiences) on a pedestal – high up out of reach. If we’re lucky we might be able to grasp it if we stand on a footstool. He remains a mystery, above us, somehow greater.??

And this feeling of inaccessibility and inferiority stays with us through adulthood and the rest of our learning journey. We take courses, love learning but inside…there is always that feeling that we are just ‘not readers’. We don’t know where to start.

We fear we will be ‘found out’ as the fraud who never got to the end of Jane Eyre.

And so, we mythologise the book as something ‘other’ and above us!?

When we are tasked with researching a topic or writing a paper, we get out every book in the library (or download every paper online). ?

Determined that somewhere in this mini-mountain is the nugget-sized answer we are looking for.??

Thinking that the more books we take out, the higher the chances of achieving academic success. ?

We carry the books around with us as if by osmosis, the information will seep through the rucksack (real or metaphorical) and into our body and brain. We are terrified of being called on to answer a question. Just maybe, the books on our back might help us out with the answer, when our?working memory fails.??

So what of it??

We’ve been taught that books are above us, a source of assessment and knowledge. The consequences are that we feel we have to read everything. Know everything.?

We’re led to believe that ‘good’ readers read everything, know everything.?

But we know from research into fluent readers, that this assumption isn't correct.

‘Good’ readers don’t read everything because they know they don’t have to. They read what they need to know, and they move on. The dyslexic and neurodivergent feel they must read everything and gets stuck beating themselves up when they can’t.???

So the answer??

Take the book of the pedestal. ?

You don’t need to read everything.?

You don’t need to read every word, line, paragraph, or chapter.??

You just need a decent skim-reading strategy and faith.?

Research into dyslexia and reading suggests that dyslexic readers bring their own?background knowledge to the reading process, utilising context, gist detection, and guesswork?to compensate for partial word decoding skills and working memory (Eide and Eide 2011).?

?In short....?

Trust your dyslexic instincts (they are pretty good!).??

The instinct that utilizes gist, contextual clues, and guesswork when reading, and feel your backpack lighten.?..

Look out for part 2 of my article, where I take you through a skim-reading strategy, step by step. ?

?Works cited?

Eide, B. and Eide, F. (2011). The Dyslexic Advantage. USA: Hay House?

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