Practice Makes Permanent!
In his book entitled “How to Read a Book”, Mortimer Adler discusses how reading is not a simple task of understanding what the written words are supposed to mean, but an intricate and complex art form. From what I have read of the book so far, (the first chapter), very few, including himself, have mastered this art form. He explains that even though he is a teacher, he wasn’t taught how to read for “profit”. He expounds on the point that even though many people have learned the mechanics of reading, most don’t know how to read properly or even realize that they don’t know how to read.
Adler gives an illistration of how a college student earns a degree, not by reading, but by getting A’s on tests. The simple way of achieving this goal is by recalling the teacher’s lectures, what is in the text, and knowledge of certain teacher’s preferences. But, by doing these things to earn this degree, we are “passing up an education”, and that this type of ‘learning’ is not education at all, but “stuffing”. Simply learning subjects and facts, but no skills or processes.
As for agreeing or disagreeing with this point, I’m doing a little of both. The reason I disagree is because I think subjects and facts are of some importance. I would be a tad concerned if someone didn’t know where Texas was on a map, what a verb is, or how to add fractions together. But I also agree with what Adler said on how there needs to be emphasise on skills and processes such as how to read properly. A balance is needed to really get what he would call an ‘education’
Reading is a process, an art: it’s not something you can just start doing well all of a sudden. It takes time and practice. Lots of practice. That is something I agree with Mortimer Adler completely.
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