School reading

I started this blog thinking that I would be able to write thoughts about what I was up to in life... I just hadn't figured life would get in the way so much. Over a week has past since I last posted.

I have now finished Pride and Prejudice. It's a lovely book. But why have I never read it before? You would have thought this would have been a good book to read at school. But no... Why do schools insist in introducing children to books that are going to alienate them from reading? As a child I had enough going against me with regards to reading. M and big bro read loads and where now that means I get to borrow from the big bro library, as a child it put me off. There was nothing worse than struggling through a book, trying to work out the words and meanings only to have big bro finish it in half the time and understand more of it.

Now big bro is only big bro by 16 months so this is not because I was too little, it is just our reading styles. He skim reads, gets the meanings and the impressions behind the words. I on the other hand have to read and absorb every single word to understand the meanings. Missing one out means starting the whole sentence or paragraph again. This could be very frustrating as a child. Mind you, I had the edge on vocalising my thoughts though, equally frustrating for big bro who liked to think things through before saying them. While he was thinking about his next sentence I would interrupt.. and frequently got belted by big bro for it!