I lost my love of reading thanks to idiotic school mandates. I read so many books in jr high, in high school we had a homeroom at the end of the day that you weren’t allowed to do homework in, we were literally forced to read for 30 minutes. School admins thought this would ignite love for reading, instead it killed all of my joy for it. Nothing like sitting next to a sunny window thinking about how in just 23 more minutes you can go outside when you’re being forced to read right there.
Then detention too, if you got detention you weren’t allowed to do homework - because reasons I suppose. (Doing poorly in school? Getting detention? Well good luck, you can’t do homework here sucker!) So of course, more forced reading time. How did no one think that we would associate reading == punishment?
So now I find it incredibly difficult to read, and I hate it. All I think about is all of the other things I could be doing.
No homework in detention sounds absolutely fucked.
There were a couple times in high school I actually asked to go to detention after class, just to do homework. Because I knew it was a quiet, distraction-free space where I could concentrate on a time-sensitive task. Baffled the detention supervisor, she probably wondered if I was having a bad situation at home I was trying to avoid, but no, just wanted to protect myself from myself. And it was very effective every time.
I do, the one positive about commuting is that I can listen to books. It’s the physical act of reading now that’s destroyed for me. I love books, being in bookstores, but sitting down to read feels like wasted time. On the commute it’s hard for me to read and be in a moving vehicle, so audiobooks are great
I lost my love of reading thanks to idiotic school mandates. I read so many books in jr high, in high school we had a homeroom at the end of the day that you weren’t allowed to do homework in, we were literally forced to read for 30 minutes. School admins thought this would ignite love for reading, instead it killed all of my joy for it. Nothing like sitting next to a sunny window thinking about how in just 23 more minutes you can go outside when you’re being forced to read right there.
Then detention too, if you got detention you weren’t allowed to do homework - because reasons I suppose. (Doing poorly in school? Getting detention? Well good luck, you can’t do homework here sucker!) So of course, more forced reading time. How did no one think that we would associate reading == punishment?
So now I find it incredibly difficult to read, and I hate it. All I think about is all of the other things I could be doing.
subvert the system, read books again
No homework in detention sounds absolutely fucked.
There were a couple times in high school I actually asked to go to detention after class, just to do homework. Because I knew it was a quiet, distraction-free space where I could concentrate on a time-sensitive task. Baffled the detention supervisor, she probably wondered if I was having a bad situation at home I was trying to avoid, but no, just wanted to protect myself from myself. And it was very effective every time.
Do you enjoy audiobooks? You can listen to pretty much anything and go for a hike.
I got pretty big into them a while back when I had an hour commute before podcasts were a big thing.
I do, the one positive about commuting is that I can listen to books. It’s the physical act of reading now that’s destroyed for me. I love books, being in bookstores, but sitting down to read feels like wasted time. On the commute it’s hard for me to read and be in a moving vehicle, so audiobooks are great
I’d like to listen to audiobooks but it’s hard for me to focus on them when I’m doing other stuff, especially outside/commute because of anxiety.
It was the opposite for me. I got into books because of a recommended list my school sent us for summer vacation. Best thing that ever happened to me.