we can acquire more and more skill through practice, as in the case of any other art. We may not even think there is an art of reading.
We tend to think of reading almost as if it were something as simple and natural to do as looking or walking.

[edit] I Like Picture Books

I agree with Mortimer Alder's statement because many of the people I know, myself included, read very simply. Many readers read the words that are on the pages in front of them and never care to look any further into what they mean or the context in which they are written. Like most things it seems as though with practice reading can be improved upon and perfected. Maybe you can never become a “perfect” reader, but it only makes sense that the more you read the better reader you become. After so many years of reading we seem to take it for granted and assume that the way we are currently reading is the only way. Perhaps if we focused on the skill of reading we could get more out of the text.

--Com375 21:03, 14 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Choke On Your Words

I agree with the statement because reading is something we take for granted. We are taught to read the moment we enter grade school, beginning with the features of a word: letters of the alphabet. We are surrounded by words every moment of the day, whether their presence is external or internal. As Adler suggests, we think of words as innate abilities, setting aside the complexities behind words. For instance, a group of words and their relationship with one another within a given context gives meaning. These sentences that I have typed thus far would mean nothing to you if you did not have the prior knowledge of the words’ meanings. Words are more than just syllables, they’re essential to communication. Even the hearing impaired use words in the form of sign language to communicate with one another. We learn through our understanding of words, so enhancing your ability to read through practice, is learning.

--JEC86 13:52, 4 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Reading Stinks

I agree that most of us do not regard reading as a complicated activity, involving many different steps in each of which we can acquire more and more skill through practice, as in the case of any other art. Although I agree that MOST of us do not regard reading as a complicated activity, I, myself, believe that it is a complicated activity, at least for me.

--Dolly 14:06, 4 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] ABC easy as 123?

I agree with the statement that we regard reading as something that comes naturally. The art of reading is something we often take for granted. Reading takes practice and we do not learn words or even how to read until we pick up books, newspapers, magazines, etc. From the time we are little we are shown words. Our parents read to us sometimes even before we enter the world. When we are born, we are read bedtime stories, stories about how to use the bathroom, stories about adventures and people. This is proof that it is not something natural but something that takes time since we are very little. Often time’s people do not really learn to read and pick up things in those readings until we are older, when it may be too late. Stating that reading comes naturally and is simple is a naive statement in which we should immediately re-think before we have more and more illiterate people in the world.

--Evan 13:49, 4 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] The complexities of reading

What I find most interesting about this article is that the author himself doesn’t take a viewpoint on whether reading is “secretly” difficult. He simply states what he believes the majority of people think regarding reading. I wouldn’t be the least surprised if Adler’s statements were correct and that most people don’t follow and understand the complexities of reading. Reading is so institutionalized that we throw it off as just another chore in our lives. Reading requires massive amounts of brain activity where hundreds of words are processed at a time and is far from a simple action.

--JapaneseGum 13:55, 4 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Practice Makes Perfect

I agree with this statement. Reading is a skill that becomes easier and more natural the more one uses it. After many years of reading, it becomes second-nature. We no longer have to sound out the letters to discover the word they form. We begin to recognize words as a whole, not as a sum of smaller parts. For a person who practices reading from a young age, as is common in the US, it is a simple task that is only tedious if the content of what we are reading is boring.

--WrittenOnTheSubwayWalls 13:16, 4 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Practice Makes Perfect

Reading is a complicated task. A child learns to read from the very first day of school, however, many writing s have many different meanings that can be pulled from them. Reading the words and understanding the top level of meaning is an easy task for anyone. It takes practice to be able to read and understand the deeper meanings of a text. A person can read the story of the piece of writing but it is an art to find the deeper hidden meaning.

--DNA 13:13, 4 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Breathing is Easier

I agree with the statement made by Mortimer Adler. I associate reading, especially with being in college, as a necessary everyday activity. Maybe not as easy as walking, depending on the content that you are reading, but I do not consider it an everyday challenge. With reading, it is easy to pick up on and practice. By reading anything whether it be a novel or a magazine, that is a form of practicing.

--CAMARO 13:31, 4 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] naturalized reading

I agree with Adler’s statement. Reading has become so natural to us that we do not regard it as a complicated activity. We do it so often and for so much of our communication that we do not need to think about it. This is not to say that reading cannot be complicated, or that sometimes analysis is not required. Just like his other examples of walking and looking, you often walk or look with much more focus and thought than normal. The same goes for reading, most reading at this point, comes natural to us.

--Ntourloukis 13:25, 4 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Reading as a Skill

I agree with the statement above. Reading is something that we learn early enough in life and use frequently enough to consider as simple as looking or walking. Art can be anything from painting, to music, to writing, to reading. In any form of art, the more you practice the better you will be. Therefore, the more a person reads the better he or she will be at comprehending the material. For example, a reader starts reading simple books, such as Dr. Suess’ “Green Eggs and Ham,” before they can understand more complicated readings like the work of Karl Marx. The same goes for music, a guitar player has to learn simple songs before learning something more complicated like Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird.”

--Ctierney 13:28, 4 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Read Whattt

Reading is a skill we have all learned at a young age, and ever since it has been somewhat a natural instinct to read what is placed in front of us. Reading is just one of those things where you simply do it. For example when there’s an interesting article in a gossip magazine, the reader would automatically want to read it and catch up with the latest trends.

--GinaaHHh 13:36, 4 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] I'm a Race Car Driver

I disagree with Adler; reading is a complex act which requires the human brain to process information at a rapid rate. Instead of thinking about reading being as natural as looking or walking, perhaps a more accurate analogy is race car driving. Racing is not necessarily regarded as an art, but it does require rapid processing of information provided to you by your eyes. When you read a book, you do more than look at words and pages, you create ideas and make connections, which may or may not have been intended by the author. This is evidence that reading is a complicated activity, and that a reader can become more skillful through practice, just as in racing.

--ElR6 13:31, 4 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] No Natural Task

The art of reading itself cannot be considered something just as natural as walking or even breathing. People do not just see a book, naturally pick it up, and start reading it without any effort at all. If a person wants to read a book for enjoyment, this person is most likely going to have a subject matter in mind or pick a book on a subject that interests this person. If a person is assigned a reading that does not interest them, it will be more difficult to obtain motivation for reading the piece. For example, if the piece is not appealing to the reader, it is very unlikely that the reader will naturally just pick the piece up and start reading it without thinking at all. The reader might procrastinate or even stare at the piece for a while, completely dreading reading the piece.

For reading to be even considered as something just as natural as walking, the content of the reading would have to appeal to just about everyone. There is a certain degree of motivation and interest involved in reading, and if that interest is absent then the motivation will be absent as well. This is why reading cannot be seen as a natural task. Humans are not born with the knowledge to read, it is something that is needed to be taught to them by parents or teachers. Humans can choose whether or not they want to read and there are people that go through their whole life being unable to read. Reading is not something humans naturally do, rather, it requires motivation.

--Dan kozuch 13:36, 4 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Thinking about reading is hard and not for the faint of heart

I do not agree with Mortimer Adler’s assertion. I have found that the more I read, the more I practice, the better I become at reading. Reading is difficult. It requires attention to detail and form and context and an ability to come and go from a piece. I think like walking or looking, reading can become second nature, and with practice you can improve your skill. I think that it is possible to improve on your ability to read, through practice and understanding different techniques. For example, this semester I was told by two teachers to read the last page of a text first. This is a new technique for me. Thinking about reading makes me more intentional about how I read and changes my ability.

--Bela 13:36, 4 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Reading Is Like Walking

This statement is complex. At first I look at it and think it is not true. As a reader I know that reading is very important and that with practice you can not only read more clearly but understand what you are reading better too. For example when I was in the third grade I was not a very good reader at all. I remember being imbarressed when the teacher would call on me to read allowed. However just 5 years later when I was in the 8th grade i was so confident in my reading abilities that I would volunteer to read over the intercom in the mornings. Practice makes perfect, even in the case of reading. I do in-fact agree with Adler when he says reading is as simple as walking. However like reading walking was not so simple at first so in both of these cases practice makes it easy.

--Bluesky123 13:42, 4 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Reading in Depth

I do not agree with the statement. The act of reading is much more than moving your eyes back and forth and simply registering what is on the page. The entire idea of reading is to learn, and learning is a complicated process. Because reading is a lot more than a non-creative brain activity, one could make the argument that there are infinite brain processes going on during the course of reading. The grammar, syntax, context, appearance, implied messaging, are just some aspects of a piece of writing that can be obvious to someone that is an experienced reader.  :--Amanda Huggenkis 13:39, 4 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Most Students

I can understand the reasoning behind this quote. Most people, more commonly students, read a text, remember it for a class and then go on with life. The reading has not changed them; changed meaning altered their outlook on life and points of view. It is just a class exercise. Half the time a student will forget what they have read after the class is through and it does not bother them.

I can, just as easily disregard written work after I’m done working with it but I would never say “…most of us do not regard reading as a complicated activity, involving many different steps…” because reading is in fact a very difficult task for me, personally, and I have to take steps to accomplish reading (Adler.) I have a learning disability called dyslexia. Dyslexia has many extremes and levels of severity, but people with dyslexia can mix up letters, numbers and read and reread and reread, even a sentence, multiple times to finally understand what the author is saying. The fact that this quote exists makes me extremely angry and hurt. I work my ass off, excuse my language but I’m pissed, to accomplish most work, especially reading assignments. When it takes other classmates 20 minutes to read a given assignment it will take me an hour. For example, it can take me 20 minutes to read one page of text because I didn’t understand it the first time or the second time I read through it. Sometimes, as I’m reading, I need to stop at a word because that one word throws me off and I lose all substance I retained in the previous sentence or paragraph. I can’t explain why this happens it is something I need to work on. My dyslexia will not disappear, and I try not to look at it as a flaw but rather as a part of me I can improve on, just like any other art form.

I believe there is an art to reading. Like any other form of art, it is something learned, practiced and constantly rehearsed. There are multiple ways to use it; for pleasure, studies, research or supportive evidence in a paper. One can read others works to mimic the authors writing style to become better writers. I have become a better writer by reading and dissecting other’s samples of writing to write my own responses. Reading is a practiced art and it is something I am still trying to master, not only to become a better writer but to finally enjoy reading so it is not labeled as a chore but as a pastime.

--Jwanamak 12:20, 9 October 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Re-Learning to Walk

It is too true that we do not regard reading as a complicated process. I started taking Japanese at the beginning of my college career; it was at that point I realized how much I had taken my own language skills and abilities for granted. Learning Japanese requires one to gain knowledge of multiples sets of characters that are different from the English alphabet. With each new character I practiced I was literally learning what it meant to be able to read. Casually glancing down at even the letters on this keyboard as I type seemed like a miracle. Day after day I stumbled writing (more like scribbling) and reading characters. Finally, when I became trained to associate certain characters with sounds and meanings I had to relearn the whole structure of a language. The arrangement of subject and verb placement and importance of simple prepositions such as “in” and “on” became monumental challenges. Each day I returned to Japanese class to read I became impressed with the skills in English I already possessed. Now as a third year Japanese student I have become familiar with the basics of the language and I have noticed that not only have I started taking my English abilities for granted again, but I now am doing the same thing with a foreign language. The ability to read, as I have recently discovered, is truly an art. However, it is human nature, I believe, to overlook the art and beauty of the things we encounter on a daily basis.

--BellaBerly^(talk) 3:09am October 16, 2007