Sara Malone - August Blog Post #1 - The Pleasure Principle

When I finished reading “The Pleasure Principle” by Nancie Atwell, I immediately had to highlight the last sentence of the article, “…The ultimate delivery system for impelled reading is a deliberate environment that invites, nurtures, and sustains immersion in stories and characters, that says every day of every school year, Welcome to the zone.” The three key verbs used here are: invites, nurtures, and sustains. These three terms are exactly what I hope to apply with my students throughout the year with pleasure reading.

The invitation should be anticipatory! Just like when a child receives a birthday invitation in the mailbox, they are excited! They are looking forward to it with happiness and hope! There is excitement and an attractiveness about the event. Shouldn’t it be the same with a book? I can remember having to read several science fiction selections in middle school and I was filled with absolute dread over having to slough through them. I hated reading science fiction. I still hate reading science fiction. Nothing about these books appealed to me or filled me with excitement. We have to stretch our classroom libraries to include gazillions of different genres that can be explored. We should desire for our students to say, “These are my favorite authors, genres, books, and characters this year, and this is why.”

Are we nurturing our students with the appropriate ways to read and enjoy reading? As a mother, I’ve had the opportunity to physically nurture three children. Mothers tend to hang on to our pediatrician’s every word about how to feed, swaddle, and console a newborn or toddler. We convince ourselves that the way we are taught and the way we apply it with our children, is the obvious and scientifically-proven American gold standard way. But is it? What about nurturing in the deserts of Africa? What about nurturing in the Siberian terrain? Are we able to take liberties with how we nurture reading within our own classrooms? Yes and we should! If we can eliminate frustration with growing readers, we must find what works and stray from the formulas.

Are we able to sustain our students with the elements to enjoy reading for a continuous amount of time? I appreciate how the author asked her students what they needed to be happily alone with a book: encouragement and advice from the teacher, time to read at school, trillions of great books, comfortable environments to read, solitude to read, booktalks with the teacher. This is such an easy and attainable checklist for me and others to have as classroom teachers. We can provide this for our students. 

Today, more than ever, we are competing with technology for our students. We don’t want to have to fight a battle over what can give them independent joy and satisfaction. Invite them, nurture them, and sustain them. The pleasure will come!