We don’t read, do we?
Just this afternoon, I got
annoyed by one of my students text message. She texted me whether presentation
woud be today or some other days. In fact,
I had put a course outline right in her classroom. Besides that, I had written there when the
presentation would be in case that there would be this question. Taadaaaaaa.... if you are scared of a thing,
then it will exist. What I wondered was where was she when I loudly
announced the D-day of the presentation. She didn’t even ask her classmates about that,
or perhaps her classmates didn’t pay attention either? Haaa...no idea. The fact
shows that I did put and made a schedule there.
They didn’t read, and DON’T READ. Who’s to blame?
My students didn’t read because
they didn’t hear what I said or even they didn’t get what I meant by
schedule. Worst of all, they don’t
read. Past tense shows action in the
past, but present tense is for something
happening at present and keeps going on until future time. If I say they don’t
read, it means that they have a habit of not reading something. In fact, they mostly asked about anything
orally although there was a written guidance in which they were supposed to
READ, not ASK.
Oral culture is to blame? Not necessary.
Nothing to blame on but the human. Why don’t they change? (Errr...why don’t we
change?) This runs in our veins,not just theirs. Students are those who are in their school
age and are often blamed of not reading. But we teachers don’t read either. Want
a proof? Out of the blue, a teacher forgot her schedule to attend a class. As a
result, somebody else had to take over the class for that session. Her reason was that no one told her that she
had to attend that class. In fact, there
was a very clear and present schedule that showed her duty to present in that
class. Why didn’t she read I wondered. What
did she think of those words, numbers and such on the paper stuck on the wall? Decoration...well. PlaaaaaaK!!!!
So, I can conclude that WE DON’T
READ and we are not better readers that our students. Happy with this? Don’t we
feel guilty of asking our students to read while we ourselves don’t read?
