Agreed! Fuck the Grapes of Wrath. I mean, kind of. You know, I thought I just hated reading for the longest time. Turns out that I simply hated reading books that I found to be boring. Before I got my shit together in my early 20's and became a teacher (I've been teaching for 15 years at this point), I was a 16 y/o HS dropout. At one point, I was arrested and placed in a juvenile detention center for several months for possession of alcohol and truancy. Anyway, I refused to listen to directions whilst in juvie, as I knew that the solitary confinement kids got to stay in their cells all day, have their food brought to them, and they were able to check out multiple books from the detention center's library. I managed to be kept in solitary confinement for three weeks, just reading the harry potter series and John grisham all day, every day. Once they figured out what I was up to, they stopped lending me books so I had to come out, as I couldn't stand the boredom of solitary confinement without books. But that was when I realized that I wasn't an illiterate, uncultured idiot...I just have ADHD and can't get myself into reading books that I find to be terrible. It feels painful and my mind wanders when I have no interest in the material.
I get that there is just some material that kids just have to know, even if it is boring. I mean, I'm a math teacher. I deal with my fair share of apathetic students, and I empathize with them. It fucking sucks to have to drag yourself through material that is boring. This is what I tell my ivy-league over-educated husband (we met after I got my shit together... I didn't tell him much of this until we were married for a decade, as I passed for a very functional and well-educated mid-20's y/o gal and I wasn't keen on sharing my shady youth years for obvious reasons). I tell him, imagine your worst chore, something you find to be super tedious. Now imagine having to do that EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. And on top of that, imagine that you don't have the tools that you need to do said chore, so you have just fucking figure it out on your own. And by the way, you suck at it so much that even your best efforts produce shit results. So then you develop anxiety around said chore, because you know that you're going to have to spend at least an hour or two, every day, feeling kike a god damn moron, and wondering why everyone else seems to do said chore with ease whilst you struggle to keep pace. That is what it feels like when you give an ADHD kid a book that is boring. Minutes feel like they take forever when the content isn't interesting. We have to work extra hard at staying focused on boring tasks. Even today, it takes all my might to finish books that I discover to be boring halfway through reading them. And I have a BA and MA in Education. I spent many nights in my 20's drinking coffee until the early hours of the morning, just to get through 200-300 pages of terribly dry and irrevelent texts. To be honest, nowadays I have mostly given up on finishing books just for the sake of finishing them. I don't want to waste my precious, rare free time on books that I find to be boring. My life is a fucking slog. I have 10 cats (mostly seniors and disabled cats), 2 dogs, a young kid, a house on 3 acres of land that needs to be maintained, a very busy husband with high expectations, as well as my own perfectionis(tic?) attitude when it comes to cleanliness and order, coupled with the struggles that come along with managing everything whilst having ADHD and anxiety (meds and therapy can only help so much...I have to work hard to maintain good habits and routines, as well as family calendars, delegating chores to others so that I'm not overwhelmed and tasked with doing EVERYTHING home related...you get the drift). So I'm not going to waste 30 minutes of uninterrupted quiet time to read a book that doesn't pique my interest, especially when I know that those 30 minutes are likely going to be my only free time for days.
For the longest time, I thought I was stupid and lacked the drive and discipline that were neccessary in order to do well in high school. I saw other kids do well in class with ease; I wondered what was wrong with me. After years of therapy, I realized that my failures in high school weren't due to a lack of intelligence, or poor aptitude for academics. I didn't make it through HS because I had a mental health crisis; I was sex trafficked by my adult boyfriend, kidnapped, and I subsequently developed a drug addiction created by said trafficker, in an attempt to hold me hostage. My parents were very supportive and involved, but they could only do so much. I was a good liar, and I held it together with good grades and extracurriculars until my sophomore year. It's hard to keep up with homework when things like that are going on in the background.
I'm not sure if this will make much sense. It's almost 5 pm on a Saturday and my kid is having a playdate at her friend's house. My husband is picking her up, so I decided to take an edible (which is a rare treat, as I haven't had a "free" afternoon in months). I apologize for the stream of consciousness. Your book comment brought me on a walk down memory lane and I felt compelled to comment.