Reading is fundamental and important to our future, but so is getting everything else in our classes done.

Reading for 15 minutes every time I go in to my elective class- es puts a strain on the time I have to do my work.

Although the core classes like English, history, math, and sci- ence are important, art is also important to me, even if it’s not considered one of the core class- es.

Having to cut out a portion of every class for reading not only puts a damper on student’s work, but also teacher’s lesson plans. Teachers are not able to teach us as much because around 30 to 45 minutes are being taken out of their plans every week. There are many things in my classes to be

done, and taking 15 minutes out of working time becomes signifi- cant once it all adds up at the end of the week.

Perhaps choosing one day of the week to read for 15 minutes would be better than every class period or if we were given a reading log in English classes, or even written pieces that involve the subject we’re learning about if teachers want to see reading levels improve.

Junior Sydney Loyd is not in favor of the new rule implement- ed in classes.

“I think it’s taking away from class time,” Loyd said. “It takes away from the curriculum we’re supposed to be learning about, people should be reading outside of school for their own sake.”

Some teachers give students a grade on whether or not they bring their own book to read.

We shouldn’t be required to have to bring a book every day, but its recommended to bring one instead.

Most teachers have their own bookshelves, there should be no harm in borrowing a book, and

at least the student is reading. Being penalized for forget- ting our independent reading book doesn’t seem very fair considering it’s not what the lesson is for the class in the

first place.
Although I like to read,

I don’t always carry a book with me and I don’t want to get a “bad grade” just for for- getting my book.

We already have to find a book in our lexile and take tests on it that hurt our over- all grade in English classes because we don’t remember a small detail out of the hun- dreds of pages we read that a test question was asking about.

Why implement more reading activities that will only interfere with our grades and classes?

Bottom line is, reading is important and vital to our aca- demic career, but some of our elective classes are just as im- portant to us and are classes we wish to strive in without losing time in them.