By Summer Crawford
Staff Writer
My hand aches from furiously writing and cramming my jumbled thoughts onto pieces of paper, and my brain throbs from pushing it to the limit to recall facts for strenuous tests throughout the school day. My eyes shift to the looming clock above me, and as the hour and minute hand align at the 3:50 p.m. mark, I rush out of the room. But this does not mean I am free once I get home.
I find that life is not only 50 times more difficult when high school rolls around, but it is also overly scheduled with almost every hour planned out. From the two and a half years that I have been in high school, there are many things I have noticed regarding reading, or the lack thereof. The amount of free time I have had has significantly dropped since my good old middle school days, when I could not wait to come home and read new and enticing books, just for the fun of it. Instead of being able to grab a book and go, now there are papers waiting to be done as the book shelf slowly acquires more dust.
Gone are the times of tucking a book onto the windowsill and folding your hands around a steaming cup. Gone are the massive stacks of books on the dresser shelf that used to be visited everyday.
Yes, it might be hard to believe that I, along with several other of my friends, used to spend hours each week going to the library to pick out books and read them at home. In my seventh and eighth grade English classes, my teachers strongly encouraged us to go past our reading log “required time” each week. When I started to think of reading not as a chore, but as a hobby, that is when I really understood what books offered.
In high school, it is all too easy to lose your footing and fall into the hole filled with never-ending papers and lists of activities to do. I miss those days when I had ample amounts of free time to read as many books as I pleased, and not just the ones assigned to me for school related curriculum. High school kids are missing the point that reading books is supposed to be enjoyed and they can broaden their horizons: it should not have to be a forced activity.
Advanced Placement English students at Coppell High School basically are not allowed enough time in their classes to pick new and interesting books to read outside of school. But what if something could be done to change that? The Academies at CHS allow their students in English class what they call “20 percent time,” when students can choose to do any activity that they please. What if we implemented this into other English classes? Students might just take these 20 minutes as time to read their favorite books.
Reading does not only offer the benefit of finding an “escape” from reality or a relaxation. According to Psychology Today, reading enhances brain connectivity and it improves the theory of mind. Theory of mind is our ability to attribute several mental states such as beliefs or desires to ourselves and to others. Reading is important not only as a leisure activity, but it can surprisingly help us understand the people in our environment.
The point is, in high school we focus way too much of our energy on all of the stress accompanying homework and other activities. What we should be doing is squeezing in a few minutes of free time in English classes. Maybe then students will choose to dig out their favorite books, and not whip out their phones to go on social media websites.
