Reply to Why, oh why, do the schools still ask students to read so much fiction?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote] I'd much rather students read real nonfiction sources in history and social sciences[/quote]

Just what do you consider "real nonfiction sources" in the social sciences?  Primary sources in history, I understand and the kids do read some of those.  It would be impossible to read enough to learn history.[/quote]

I'm not even sure what a non-real non-fiction source would be. If it is non-fiction, then it is by definition real. Perhaps the poster meant serious works of history and not picture books.

In any event, primary sources are not the only "real" sources. Any well-written history book is a "real" source of non-fiction.[/quote]

Textbooks are written by committees to  convey information to students. This is a rhetorical never-never land.  Students start to see writing as just words, just information.  They don't understand that writing is written by a person (or two) for a reader  with a purpose in mind (to persuade the reader to their perspective).  After a lifetime of textbook reading, my college students think writing is just information - they have no concept of the assumptions and purposes behind writing.  They don't understand that writing is a conversation  that happens in a context.

Real books not textbooks.[/quote]

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