Using Fictional Literature to Pass Your Classes

By Michael H. on January 19, 2012

One of the most daunting tasks that one must undertake to pass their classes is reading their textbooks. Often I have found that it is the least enjoyable part of a class.

photo from flickr.com, posted by http://www.flickr.com/photos/foolstopzanet/151936713/

This issue with textbooks is how dry and boring they make the information. There is nothing exciting about the text, and since the goal of the text is to remain purely factual – not that this is a bad thing – there is little room for improvement. What if you could read something more enjoyable, and still learn the necessary material for class (or at least part of it)?

This semester I am taking a class on ancient Greek societies. I am required to read many of the older texts that sprung up from that culture. Now, the texts themselves don’t seem entirely too terrible. However, I also recently managed to plow my way through the Percy Jackson series in just a few days. Little pieces of factual information about the Olympian deities are sprinkled throughout the text. After discussing this with a friend, they decided to borrow the books to combat their Greek mythology course.

Using this series, one could help add some weight to the Olympian gods. By fleshing out the characters into something more solid you create something far easier to memorize. This concept seemed so simplistic that you could use it to convey far more complex mechanisms to students in an entertaining manner. Studies have shown (which means that I read it on the Internet somewhere) that students learn better if there is an emotional response to the text they are reading.

I personally love reading. I’m currently working on getting through some of the classics that I’ve had piled up – most recently, “The Illustrated Man”. What if these great tales could be woven together with textbooks to create all new stories that invoke both an emotional and an intellectual response while educating you? The world of learning could face a renaissance. The struggle would boil down to encouraging children to read.

Perhaps this is a selfish desire, as not everyone loves to read as much as I do. I find myself forgetting to check my email or avoiding television and the Internet for days simply to plunge myself wholeheartedly into a book. Some of it probably has to do with being a writer. One of the best ways to learn how to write is by mimicking the structure of the innumerable great writers.

However, there is something to be said about stories. Their innate ability to function as the universal mirror could present a fascinating learning tool. You’d begin to recognize yourself within the material while at the same time learning it. Even if you don’t choose to tie class material directly into the text, I believe that novels should be used more often within education. They’re an excellent source of character building as students recognize valiant protagonists that they wish to resemble.

Maybe the change wouldn’t help, but as my grandmother used to say, “If you can read, you can teach yourself anything.”

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