Abstract
While teachers bemoan the decrease in students’ ability to sustain interest in reading, and phones dominate over plain text, I have been wrestling with two questions that predate the current ubiquity of screentime: Why are some people more capable of reading fluently and with passion than others? Why can’t every person easily “lose” themselves in a text? As an English teacher and avid reader, I investigate the mechanisms of the act of reading (mainly fiction and creative nonfiction), the well-intentioned efforts of educators, and the question of whether reading itself is absolutely necessary to produce an informed, empathetic, and educated population.
Recommended Citation
Goldblatt, A. (2026). The Labor of Reading: A Personal and Pedagogical Exploration. Wellspring: A Practitioner-Oriented Journal of Literacy and Language Education, 4(1). Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/wellspringlled/vol4/iss1/4
