the habit of reading – Sisyphean High

A Little More Wisdom, Goodness, and Sanity

This project uses the word prescribed, not assigned, to describe your reading choice, which echoes this metaphor:

We should learn to treat [literature] as doctors treat their medicine, something we prescribe in response to a range of ailments and classify according to the problems it might be best suited to addressing. Literature deserves its prestige for one reason above all others: because it’s a tool to help us live and die with a little more wisdom, goodness, and sanity.

This quotation also appears in our makerspace’s reading guide, where the key word is tool, as in a tool for our makerspace. Literature is a way to solve problems and create meaning. Reading is perhaps the best tool we have for learning in a Humanities makerspace.

Adapted from two posts from the reading section of this site: How to Choose a Book and Holt’s Checkpoint, Choosing to Read, and After You Read.

Responding to a Text: Goodreads

Throughout the reading process, you’re asked to consider the purpose of literature outside of a high school classroom. The video we watch ends with a particularly powerful quotation about this:

We should learn to treat [literature] as doctors treat their medicine, something we prescribe in response to a range of ailments and classify according to the problems it might be best suited to addressing. Literature deserves its prestige for one reason above all others: because it’s a tool to help us live and die with a little more wisdom, goodness, and sanity.

The key word there is tool, as in a tool for our makerspace. Books are a way to solve problems and treat ailments and create meaning. They aren’t assignments to be endured (or circumvented, as the case may be); they are the most important part of the Humanities.

Tag: the habit of reading

Self-Prescribed Literature Project

A Little More Wisdom, Goodness, and Sanity

Good Reads and Goodreads

Responding to a Text: Goodreads