Western High SchoolWestern High School

Why Read?

by Heather Gruenthal, Library Teacher

With evidence from Kelly Gallahger’s book “Readicide”

“Top 10 Reading Reasons”1. Reading is rewarding.2. Reading builds a mature

vocabulary.3. Reading makes you a better writer.4. Reading is hard, and “hard” is

necessary.5. Reading makes you smarter.6. Reading prepares you for the

world of work.7. Reading is financially rewarding.8. Reading opens the door to college

and beyond.9. Reading arms you against

oppression.10. Life 101 – Lifelong Learning.

Read or Go to Jail!

• In the state of California … if you don't know how to read by the end of fourth grade, the state is building you a prison cell. It knows the sad statistics: If you can't read by then, your most likely fate as an adult is to live behind bars" (Multimedia Schools, Burmark, 2001).

Reading is financially rewarding.

• You are being paid to attend class today – not just in cognitive stimulation and intellectual enlightenment, but in cold, hard cash. Consider the following:

• The average lifetime earnings for a student who does

• not finish high school is $936,000. • The average lifetime earning for a student who

does finish high school is $1,216,000.• Therefore, a high school diploma is worth

$280,000 ($1,216,000 minus $936,000).• Four years of high school (assuming some time

off for illness) amounts to 700 days of school.• Therefore, students are “paid” $280,000 for

700 days of school• Therefore, students earn $400 per day• Therefore, students earn $66.67 to attend

class each day (based on a six-period day). Students who finish college will earn a lot more per day than that.

• So where’s your money? Remember, plumbers, doctors, and car mechanics do not get paid until the job is finished. School is your job: finish it! (Gallagher)

Life 101Life 101• There is no instruction

manual for life!• There is more information

than you can ever know!• Find answers to important

life questions• Just for fun!• Choose your destiny!

Be a life-long LearnerBe a life-long Learner

Reading is your instruction manual for life!

•Romance advice•Family problems•Choosing a school•Choosing a career•Buying a car•A medical problem•Raising a family…

            

Reading makes you smarter

“The quantity of books available is the best single predictor of test score performance and success in schools, and is a better predictor than socioeconomic status or parental education…access to good reading makes one a reader, and being a reader makes one smarter. How many students at MIT do you think were read to as youngsters? How many students at MIT do you think are reluctant readers?” (Terrence Paul).

Reading prepares you for the world of work.• “As recently as the 1950s,

twenty percent of the jobs in America were professional, twenty percent skilled, and sixty percent unskilled. In the 1990s, twenty percent of the jobs remained professional, but skilled jobs rose to sixty-plus percent while unskilled jobs fell below twenty percent.”

• In other words, unskilled jobs are disappearing…so you had better know how to read!