"Fiction tries to run, but non-fiction is too fast!"
*smack*
"Ohhhhh, non-fiction had one good body slam right there. I think fiction might be out of this fight."
*one, two three*
"And that's the fight, ladies and gentlemen! Non-fiction prevails once again!"
This is what I think should ideally happen if fiction and nonfiction ever fight to see which one should be read more in primary and secondary school. After reading an article on the Washington Post, I found that there are other people who have similar beliefs. Fiction is a fun read, one that is used to divert one's attention. Non-fiction is more difficult to read and it requires an attention span. Although reading non-fiction is widely regarded to be more beneficial to one's intellectual development than reading fiction, students in grade-school read fiction more because of one simple fact - students don't have an attention span long enough to sit down for an extended period of time to analyze literature.
Now, I must say that older fiction and realistic fiction, for the most part, do have some value, but modern fiction is primarily useless as it is only written for commercial value. Take, for example, the Harry Potter Series. I love the series, but what did I gain from reading all the books? Nothing. There wasn't really a moral to the story and the text was simple to read: no difficult words, no phrases to ponder, etc. An even better example is Twilight. Absolutely no literary value. These books are very popular with today's youth (and yes, it is still better than watching TV), but they don't help us in any way.
As college approaches, students like us need to be well prepared to think about what we read. If non-fiction is not integrated into our curriculum, then more students will be left behind. Forget, NCLB; NCLB only focuses on the grade-school education, but it should be more farsighted and realize that those who read very little non-fiction will be impaired when they seek higher education.
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