Happy New Year 2024!
This is the time to make (and break) New Year resolutions. While the inevitable post-holiday resolution to eat less and run more can be considered, at best, temporary, a permanent resolution should be to read!
You may notice that I haven’t specified that you should read more, just that you should read. As busy high school students and teachers, we often don’t have much time to read and when we do the focus tends to be on the set texts we have to study or teach. The limited time we try to set aside for reading for pleasure is often eroded by chores and other unplanned activities that arise.
Throughout the year, Instagram is filled with people uploading pictures of the stacks of books they have read each month and, in some cases, each week (it must be a lie; there’s no way someone can get through a book per day and deal with school, right?). I’m all about people reading widely, but I’d prefer people to read less and read well than just flick through a book and upload a picture of it with the caption “look what I’ve just finished” to social media.
The speed our world works at is ever-increasing and the speed at which we (have to) read is also climbing. Words Rated produced some statistics in 2021 that show that an average person can read 1-page of a paperback per minute. That’s 60 pages per hour! It is really necessary to read so fast? Can a reader reading at that speed take in the nuances of the language and imagery used by the author? Can we build up detailed pictures of the characters? I don’t think so.
Instead of ploughing through as many books as you can, use your limited reading for pleasure time to read slowly, and enjoy, a book of your choice. If it takes a long time to get through, that’s fine. If you can’t publish your speed-reading achievement online, that’s fine. If you enjoy it and can appreciate the effort and skill the author put into it, you’ve achieved and you’ve achieved highly.
Make your resolution to take a break, grab a coffee, and settle down on a comfortable chair to read, however slow you want.
P.S. I’ve been reading Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford for the last three weeks—it’s great!
Chris Lockwood
NEHS Director
National English Honor Society
The National English Honor Society (NEHS), founded and sponsored by Sigma Tau Delta, is the only international organization exclusively for secondary students and faculty who, in the field of English, merit special note for past and current accomplishments. Individual secondary schools are invited to petition for a local chapter, through which individuals may be inducted into Society membership. Immediate benefits of affiliation include academic recognition, scholarship and award eligibility, and opportunities for networking with others who share enthusiasm for, and accomplishment in, the language arts.
America’s first honor society was founded in 1776, but high school students didn’t have access to such organizations for another 150 years. Since then, high school honor societies have been developed in leadership, drama, journalism, French, Spanish, mathematics, the sciences, and in various other fields, but not in English. In 2005, National English Honor Society launched and has been growing steadily since, becoming one of the largest academic societies for secondary schools.
As Joyce Carol Oates writes, “This is the time for which we have been waiting.” Or perhaps it was Shakespeare: “Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer . . .” we celebrate English studies through NEHS.
National English Honor Society accepts submissions to our blog, NEHS Museletter, from all membership categories (students, Advisors, and alumni). If you are interested in submitting a blog, please read the Suggested Guidelines on our website. Email any questions and all submissions to: submit@nehsmuseletter.us.
