If you’re like me, you’ve probably had some point in your life where you knew it was time to stop scrolling through your phone, put all screens far from you, and nail your pants to a chair with the hard copy of a book in your hands. But even when the hearty among us resolve to improve our lives by reading, we’re then faced with the difficulty of where to start, a.k.a. “so many books, so little time.”

Because of this dilemma, I was intrigued when I came across the following short reading list in Neil Postman’s, “The End of Education.” The titles offer a smattering of famous American works offering a glimpse of our history through both true and fictional accounts.

1.      “The Rights of Man,” by Thomas Paine
2.      “The Declaration of Independence”
3.      “The Constitution”
4.      “Democracy in America,” by Alexis de Tocqueville
5.      “The Gettysburg Address,” by Abraham Lincoln
6.      “The Emancipation Proclamation”
7.      “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain
8.      “The Scarlet Letter,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
9.      “Democracy and Education,” by John Dewey
10.    “Inaugural Address,” by John F. Kennedy
11.     “I Have a Dream,” by Martin Luther King, Jr.

“If a teacher has not read this material, I would be reluctant to have him or her in close contact with American children,” Postman writes. Ouch. That’s harsh, especially considering how little many Americans read today.

But we shouldn’t just point a finger at teachers for their neglect in reading these works. Many of us come in close contact with children as parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even just concerned citizens. In many ways, all of us average folk can and should be more influential in a child’s life than a teacher. With that in mind, we, too, should take Postman’s challenge and tackle the books on this short list. Here are just a few reasons why.

For starters, many of these are not long reads. Six of the titles are so short that each could be tackled in an evening, meaning that one week of dedicated reading would help us accomplish over half the list.

That said, even some of these shorter titles are likely to have challenging vocabulary. But who is afraid of big words? The more we immerse ourselves in them, the more we exercise our brains. And the more we exercise our brains, the more we’ll be prepared to influence and engage the children in our lives for good.

Second, these titles allow us to compare the past with the present. Take the Declaration of Independence, for instance. When I read it, I’m always shocked at how much those of us in present day America put up with from those in leadership. The American colonists stayed alert regarding what their leaders were up to and held them accountable. We, meanwhile, yawn and look the other way when our leaders pull the same stunts.

Finally, this handful of book titles introduces us to a wide range of political and ideological backgrounds. John Dewey, for instance, was a leading progressive education advocate, whose ideas are anathema for those on the right. Alexis de Tocqueville, however, is one who wholeheartedly advances traditional values, some of which would make today’s progressives shudder. Dipping our toes into these authors allows us to better understand opposing arguments, sharpen our own arguments, and maybe even change our viewpoints. Doing this gets us out of the “us vs. them” mentality so prevalent in current trends, and as a byproduct diminishes the vitriol that seems to haunt so many of our interactions today.

Author Dorothy Sayers once said that the goal of education should be to teach us how to learn for ourselves. There’s no better way to fulfill that goal by picking up one of these books and interacting with it. In so doing, we not only improve our own minds, we also improve the minds of those in the next generations upon whom we have direct influence.

—

The republication of this article is made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal. 

Image Credit: PickPik