In life, reading is something we all must do, and when I say that, I mean reading books. Your English teacher might ask you to read a short story and answer some questions, your professor might tell you to read a novel and write an essay about it, or your job might require you to read an informational book about the profession you’re in.

Like it or not, if you want to get far in life, you must be literate, and you must read. Of course, we all have our opinions. Some of us like to read, and some of us don’t. Some of us like certain genres, and some like others. We also have opinions about what we read. In high school, we usually get assigned books, but sometimes, teachers let us read a book for pleasure.

Pleasure reading is an activity where your teacher lets you choose any book, big or small, thick or thin, and allows you to read it, usually in class. In contrast, assigned reading is when a teacher makes you read a book, usually a classic. While the school district expects assigned reading to be in the curriculum, it’s completely up to teachers if they want to include pleasure reading in their plan.

Many teachers have positive opinions on pleasure reading. 10^th grade English teacher Ms. Ransom is, perhaps, the biggest advocate for pleasure reading with an entire library in her classroom. With experience from her own children, she claims that if you can find students a book they’ll like, they won’t stop reading, and that would help students get excited for reading.  When students are motivated to read what they want, that leads to more reading and a higher vocabulary.

“Reading is like exercising. If you never exercise, you’ll never be in shape,” said Ms. Ransom.

Sophomore Bryan Batista said, “Pleasure reading is beneficial, especially to students. It can be just as fun as TV or video games.”

10^th grade English teacher Ms. Zamora also believes in the power of pleasure reading. She said, “If you can find a kid a good book, it’s very motivating. You just got to find the right book.”

Ms. Cardonas, an 11^th grade English, AP English, and Creative Writing teacher, believes that silent reading with a student’s book of choice should make a return to the standard curriculum.

While teachers can praise pleasure reading and its ability to invigorate student’s desire to read, there are always two sides of the coin. Dr. DeNight, 12^th grade English teacher who also taught 9^th grade last year, does not trust pleasure reading so much.

“I’m not a big fan of pleasure reading. It’s hard to tell if students actually read the book when I haven’t read it,” he said.

Ms. Ransom points out another drawback of pleasure reading, saying that students are not on the same page with pleasure reading, so her class can’t really discuss the book unless multiple students are reading the same books.

Assigned reading can be something that turns a lot of students off towards reading, but it does have some advantages. Some teachers claim that it helps prepare students for what they have in store for them in college. Dr. DeNight believes that assigned reading helps you better your time management skills. He also says that in college, you will be expected to read specific books and know the details in them.

Ms. Cardonas agrees, saying, “In college you get assignments to read, and you will be held accountable for reading.”

Ms. Ransom says that with assigned reading, everybody is on the same page so she can discuss it with her class and use it as a teaching tool.

Assigned reading, however, also has its problems at the high school level. Usually, forcing students to read something they might not like doesn’t have positive results according to some teachers. Ms. Ransom said, “Many students are not reading the book. Some will read it; some will ignore it and do the assignments without having read the book. If they never read the book, will they ever get better at reading? No.”

Ms. Zamora thinks that some kids might not like the assigned book, making them reluctant or unmotivated to read.

There are also students who don’t like assigned reading. Sophomore Pedro Ramos said, “Assigned reading is the most boring thing you can do. It might turn off people to reading, as they are forced to read something they don’t like, and that impression is lasting.”

Freshman Joe Digon commented, “Assigned reading is harder depending on what the book is, and it restricts creative flow.”