Reading Comprehension at Rock Bottom

Do not expect a Cervantes to emerge in the next 50 years

License Creative Commons

David Rabadà

The 2023 PISA report made it abundantly clear: reading comprehension in Spain is in a Titanic state—at the very bottom. A student with deficient reading comprehension skills produces poorly evaluated exams and assignments, not due to a lack of ability but a lack of learning. Such a student becomes frustrated and struggles to regain confidence in their studies. However, if the first thing a young learner masters is their own language, their motivation improves, their autonomy increases, and their academic performance rises. Consequently, secondary school teachers find themselves in a much better position in the classroom.

Throughout the academic year, encouraging students to engage with high-quality texts is beneficial for improving their reading comprehension, reducing school failure, and enhancing Spain’s PISA results. Introducing children to stories and songs from an early age is essential for achieving maximum comprehension and optimal learning. The principle is simple: a student who has read with quality, quantity, and focus will learn to write with elegance, accuracy, and structure. The current problem lies in the absence of quality. Some experts suggest that works such as Lazarillo de Tormes, La Celestina, and other classics should be removed from recommended reading lists. They argue that these texts are sexist, racist, or classist, despite their historical significance and their exceptional richness and variety of vocabulary. By this logic, one might also propose demolishing the Egyptian pyramids, as they were constructed under sexist, racist, and classist systems.

To replace the works that have been removed, short texts written by the experts themselves or by like-minded authors are proposed—texts that lack the craftsmanship of professional writers, whether classical or contemporary. These recommended texts are laden with emotional undertones and meticulously avoid sexism, racism, or classism, steering clear of genuine, high-quality literature. It is in such literature that students learn two critical things: historical facts—whether sexist or not—and how to read with the sophistication needed to acquire an extensive vocabulary.

Among the books recommended by these experts, a black person cannot excel as an athlete to avoid reinforcing racism; a woman cannot accompany her children to school to prevent promoting sexism; a banker cannot be portrayed as more intelligent than a street cleaner to avoid classism; and a homosexual cannot be depicted as a villain to avoid fuelling homophobia. This is overwhelmingly paradoxical, given that these same experts advocate imagination and creativity in education while simultaneously forbidding it in literature. It is evident that homophobia, sexism, and racism are scars of our history, but as such, they must be taught to prevent their repetition. Nevertheless, certain self-important education experts aim to erase all high-quality narratives, past and present, while promoting censorship that we have already endured in this country.

Without advocating for Don Quixote as mandatory reading in secondary school, but moving beyond these Fahrenheit 451-style approaches, we should simply encourage quality reading among adolescents. For this to happen, students need primary school teachers with excellent subject knowledge and a rich, elegant, and precise command of the official languages. The aim is to ensure that their writing and reading comprehension skills are exemplary. Mastery of language significantly reinforces curricular learning. Without linguistic proficiency, knowledge cannot be fully understood, memorised, or expressed, and our brains struggle to think and reason fluently. Ultimately, students should complete primary school with proven skills in mechanical reading, reading comprehension, and the ability to write about the concepts they have learned. Without this foundation, a young person cannot understand, learn, or articulate what they think they know. This could lead to frustration, demotivation, and eventual school dropout.

While students have countless options online to find information, those who genuinely seek deep knowledge to form their own ideas must be guided by individuals well-versed in selecting such information. To achieve this, proficiency in reading and writing is indispensable. However, reading is not a natural activity like speaking, walking, or breathing. If reading is not a natural learning activity, writing is even less so, requiring far greater effort, dedication, and expert teachers. Students need rigorous instruction to learn how to construct clear and concise sentences, a skill that demands years of practice and guidance. Teaching writing essentially involves helping students create a sentence and expand it with coherent syntax. Unfortunately, while reading has many advocates among pedagogues and educators, writing has far fewer. Consequently, we face the compounded problem of poor reading comprehension aggravated by the inadequate writing skills of our students. In summary, do not expect a Cervantes to emerge in the next 50 years.

Source: educational EVIDENCE

Rights: Creative Commons