Tag: deep reading

C.S. Lewis and Two Types of Education

Our educational renewal movement champions a return to the life-giving role great books play in forming lives of flourishing for our students and for society. We want our students to gain an appreciation for great literature and to be devoted to life-long learning. So if our goal is appreciation, should we do away with exams in order to really focus on appreciation? Don’t exams quench the thirst for literary art? In his 1944 essay, C.S. Lewis takes up questions like this with answers that might surprise us today. There are two types of education Lewis describes in his essay “The

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an elegant oval library, the perfect place for deep reading

The Importance of Deep Reading in Education

Deep reading is the type of reading that involves one’s undivided attention in a sustained manner to tackle a long-form book, like a novel. The feeling cultivated by deep reading is that of being lost in a book, taken to new worlds, enraptured by an alien train of thought. While many educators still feel that the importance of deep reading for education can hardly be overstated, that it is sacrosanct, the end-all-be-all of education, the winds are blowing a different direction. Beyond the basic literacy taught in early grade-school and the short-form, though still highly complex, reading skills needed to master

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