Hannah Holycross ’22, Opinion Editor
A new literacy campaign has taken class syllabuses by storm this school year. As a part of the school improvement plan, students are being encouraged to put down their cellphones and pick up a book. The two main goals of this new district wide campaign are: to get more students reading on their own and to improve literacy in the community as a whole.
In order to get more students to read on their own time, rather than reading books assigned for class, more books are being placed in the school. Teachers are also being asked to focus on encouraging students to read when done with work especially during advisory hours.
When asked about the basis of the campaign, Principal Mr. James Brennan said, “Reading impacts every classroom…it is a lifelong skill that impacts everyone academically.” “The single biggest factor on how well you do in school is reading. Reading will always be our school’s initiative and goal.”
However, students and teachers have mixed feelings about the campaign. English teacher Mr. O’Dowd is in support of it, he said: “trying to inspire kids to read is a good thing. The lack of empathy in this country is correlated with the lack of Americans that read. There are not only intellectual benefits to this, but social benefits as well.” Junior Audrey Rapp thinks the new campaign is a good idea because “We do not do that much reading here at school; we only do the reading we are assigned. It would be a good thing for people to see that reading is a good thing and can be fun when you find books that you like.” Senior Jenna Pillera disagreed and said it is unfair because we do not get a lot of free time in general, and we already read a lot in our classes”.
Despite these differing opinions, there are still high hopes for the campaign. Brennan said he hopes “it grows into something bigger, expanding from the school and out into the community.”
Lyon Life 