Students find classic literature dull, boring

Students find classic literature dull, boring

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Don't judge a book by its cover, people say. That old cliche may
be true, but the city's students do not seem to have taken this
good advice to heart. The Jakarta Post discovered that many
junior high school and high school students do not like reading
works of literature.

One high school student, who asked that her identity be
protected, said she had never read an Indonesian work of
literature because they were all "dull and boring".

"I never read literature. The very name 'literature' implies
these books are going to be heavy," the 16-year-old student at a
private Christian school in Tanjung Duren, West Jakarta, told the
Post on Monday.

She added that she preferred light fiction, comics and
magazines like Seventeen and Cosmogirl!, which she said were
"light enough so my brain can relax".

Apparently, she is not alone in her aversion to literature.
Another student, Susanti, 16, admitted that she loved reading
light and frothy romance stories.

"I read a work of literature once when I was in junior high
school, but that was only because the teacher made us. Now, I
read only magazines, light fiction and romance stories," said the
student at Mater Dei School in Pamulang, south of Jakarta.

Even more shocking was the revelation of Renata, 15, who
claimed that she was not interested in reading at all, let alone
reading literary works, denouncing reading as a "boring habit".

"I'd rather hang out with my friends or go to the mall ...
reading books is such a boring thing to do," said Renata, a
student at state-run high school SMA 22 in Kota, West Jakarta.

A survey conducted in 2003 by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization's Program for International
Student Assessment revealed that 38 percent of Indonesian
students had serious difficulties in using reading as a tool to
advance and extend their knowledge and skills.

Many experts blame the lack of required reading in the
classroom for the students' low reading levels. However, the
teachers of those students interviewed for this report claimed
that they assigned their students works of literature to read,
and even required the students to write reports on the books.

"I assign students at least five classic Indonesian novels a
semester, which they have to review," Agnes Krismarini, the
Indonesian language teacher at Mater Dei School, told the Post.

Muchtar Sayuti, a teacher at SMA 22, said reading was a
requirement at school.

But this still does not seem to be enough to encourage
students to move from comic books to more challenging reading
fare.

Sri Sahita, a literature professor at Jakarta State
University, the university for would-be teachers, said the skill
of the teachers could also be a factor in students' poor reading
habits.

"Indonesian language teachers nowadays, in my opinion, take
the easy way out by just using provided textbooks rather than
teaching the students to read and understand literature," she
said.