The Non-Readers

It is becoming increasingly difficult to teach literature these days. One reason I left tertiary teaching is because I felt so frustrated trying to make my students read for my subject: World Literature. I'd be lucky if in a class of 50, I'd chance upon a handful of students who have actually read one or two novels after Noli and Fili. It didn't help that I handled technology students. They who had been stereotyped as averse to reading beyond formulas,diagrams or computer codes. Many would welcome my class as time to slouch on the chair and eventually doze off after several nights of finishing plates and machine problems. So I thought then that it was a good decision for DepEd to transfer the subject of literature to senior high school. And I transfered with it to Basic Ed.

I handle three literature classes this semester, one section from each strand (STEM, GAS and ABM) . The curriculum guide says the focus is 21st Century Literature which I learned refers to literature written/created from 2001 onwards. I have no problem with that even if I would certainly miss discussing mythology and other lit staples that I never get tired of. I am actually excited to discover what this new literature has to offer especially after reading somewhere that students must be made to read stories about them or in their context for them to appreciate literature better. 

After devoting a few sessions to local literary personalities and the venerable roster of National Artists for Literature, I actually had fairly successful activities that involved poetry reading , script reading and even poetry memorization. The creative output were also very reflective of the lessons and the students' individual artistry. One section has also willingly started reading novels borrowed from #thereadinghubproject which was put up for the literature class.

For our first 21st Century lit selection, I chose Jeff Canoy's Dispatches From Marawi which gained much attention online. It falls under literary journalism, a type of creative nonfiction. Needless to say , it was very relevant to the times.

We began discussing. One section has actually submitted their artwork reflection on the selection. I have posted some of them on Twitter and Instagram. 

Well, this section is really reliable when it comes to performance output. I am amazed at their interest in the subject despite the fact that their main interests are Math and Science. I forgive their noise and seeming inattentiveness at times because they deliver when asked. 

I tried discussing the same opus in another class. I mentioned Aleppo and Mosul to emphasize the destruction and misery that the conflict has caused for the people of Marawi. What got my goat was when some students snickered at the mention of Aleppo and Mosul. You know how young people are when they are reminded of something funny that sounds like the word or name mentioned. I normally would let it pass if not for the fact that I have it up to here with Filipinos laughing insensitively at something like Duterte's rape joke. I felt desperate.

There are some things terribly lacking in many Filipinos, young and old, these days. Sensitivity and Empathy among them.  Despite technological advancements that allowed us real-time information from virtually any part of the earth, the nonchalance, the unfeeling stance are too openly displayed. The internet is said to have made the world smaller but it has also created great chasms of indifference between and among peoples and societies. In the classroom, we can only do so much at this stage to goad the student to read beyond memes and updates. Despite literature adjusting to readership in recent years, I am faced with students who are mostly non-readers. They can read, alright, but they are not interested in longer, more in-depth reading. News are accessed in passing, heard over radio or TV in between busying oneself with phones. Many families have non-reading parents as well thus the necessary modeling is absent. 

Why did Aleppo or Mosul sound funny? These days, these names of places should only elicit sadness and concern. So should Marawi. Why is rape funny? Why are there people, some of them women, educated and professionals, who are "getting" what the president means and are having fun echoing him? 

I've learned and have passed on to students the fact that literature affords everyone the chance to be in situations and places they may never be in, know persons they may never meet and learn from lives they will never live. Through literature, sensitivity and empathy are developed, making a regular reader more human and humane. If Facebook, the rest of the Internet and mass media will continue to rule over the short attention span of many students, there will be no in-depth reading done, no significant human experience learned by the youth who have the time to read but wouldn't.