Dear Editor,
Reflecting on Finn McRedmond’s opinion piece regarding students’ diminished capacity to read whole books, I find myself recalling my own university days. We prospective students were cautiously counselled against merging English and History strands due to the considerable amount of necessary reading. In hindsight, it seems those who pursued solely one of these subjects expressed dismay at the swathes of text assigned, whereas those of us juggling both subjects adopted a laissez-faire approach, delving deeply into one while leaving the other to essentially manage itself.
This easy-going approach to students’ waning attention spans raises concerns over the expectations we place on our youth. If we ask less of them, are we inadvertently limiting their capabilities and achievement? – Yours truly, Marion Walsh, Donnybrook.
Dear Sir,
In response to Finn McRedmond’s piece about students’ failure to manage extended reading, I firmly assert that the decay of reading capabilities is not simply rooted in smartphone use or dwindling focus spans.
This predicament is a microcosm of a larger devaluing of intellectual thoroughness. Replacing the in-depth exploration of novels with morsels of content, we may well be shaping a cohort unversed in consistent critical thought. The true sorrow is not that students aren’t reading great authors like James Joyce, it’s that we no longer tend to expect them to. – Faithfully yours, Enda Cullen, Armagh.
Dear Sir,
Finn McRedmond’s claim that children are not reading books because they’re unable to interact with text or follow narratives warrants some scrutiny.
Considering the 600 million copies of the Harry Potter series (comprising 3,407 pages) bought globally, how do we explain this phenomenon? – Yours sincerely, Dr John Doherty, Gaoth Dobhair, Co Dhún na nGall.