The Reading Conspiracy
- Dr Heeger
- May 12
- 3 min read
Updated: May 13
"What are you reading for?" – Bill Hicks
Of the hundreds of secondary English students I have taught, a recurring divide arises when they enter Year 10 and the GCSE journey gets real: some struggle with the increased literary analysis, while others excel from the first day of term. The difference? The former never read fiction for pleasure, while the latter have been doing so for years.
The struggle of getting our kids to pick up a book instead of a device (Kindles, you're okay) is real. However, hitting them with parental mantras about how reading scientifically enhances cognitive skills and mental wellbeing by improving brain connectivity, vocabulary, focus and empathy will have them shutting down with more disdain than Windows 95.
We need to guide them with deference towards novels which light them up and act as an accelerant to those forced on them in class. This is not an easy quest. As Bowie says at the start of The Breakfast Club, our kids "... are immune to your consultations. They are quite aware of what they are going through." Ain't that the truth, David. I am still trying to ignite the spark in my own teenage son that will see him find his forever reading groove.
When I think back to what turned me onto fiction as a tween, the Adrian Mole books are the first I remember reading until the pages fell out, aged eleven and laughing until I almost puked. But it was through sneaking into my older brother's room and rifling through his bookshelf of twisted wonders that I found fictional awe.
Beginning with the thinnest, I started leafing through his horror collection with their gruesome covers and titles like Slugs by Shaun Hutson and The Rats by James Herbert. My jaw was on the floor as I read savage descriptions of rodents devouring a baby in its crib and wondering how the hell molluscs could get their act together enough to overthrow the human race. I progressed to Stephen King's early work like Carrie and Cujo and then bosh – I was off the the races. Well, the library.
From then until now, my passion for reading and encouragement of it to others has evolved into one of life's pleasures. I pick up books I like the look of, ignore the ones I don't and give up on those that fail to grab me. Most rewardingly, those I love find a permanent place on my bookcase.
I run a 'free book Friday' project from my classroom for the whole of senior school. Students who choose a book and read the first three chapters are given a house point. They then have the option of keeping the book and finishing it for a second house point, or returning it if they aren't feeling it and choosing another. I'm proud to say it has helped birth some (previously reluctant) readers.
I'll never stop taking the opportunity to recommend a book I think fits with a fellow human's tastes, be it student, colleague or stranger. If I can play a small part in switching on a lifelong love for reading in just one of them, then my work here is done.
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ryan@heegereducation.uk / 07784 473808