I’m sure we have all taken those classes where we are expected to read a book and to have the same response to the book as the teacher. And if/when we disagree with how the teacher interprets the book, we are automatically wrong, no matter how much evidence we have to support our opinion. This happened to me a lot throughout my school career and, as a result, I began to believe that there was only one way to interpret each book, and I was supposed to be able to see it immediately.
I have been thinking about this lately and I now realize how ridiculous the thought that each book only has one interpretation is. I believe that by teachers telling students that there is only one interpretation of a book, and that every person has the same response to a particular book inhibits learning. Each person has different past experiences and thus a different response to a book. If students are told that how they interpret a book is wrong if it’s not the same as the teachers, they are not given the opportunity to think critically about books. As long as the student is able to provide evidence from the book to support their claims, the teacher should not dismiss them.
Allowing each student to express their opinions about a book will also help the other students in the class. Since each person has different past experiences and thus a different response, by hearing other student’s interpretations of books can help students to expand their views and learn more about the people around them, as well as the piece of literature.
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