We Aren’t ‘Illiterate’

by Jamie Langbein ’13

If you’re reading this right now, I’m already winning my argument. The other day, a teacher accused her AP class of being “illiterate”. She was trying to reference a book, but no one knew what she was talking about. She chastised us, saying we needed to spend less time with technology and more time reading. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say this is probably the most unfair accusation we teenagers face in this age. Students, especially AP students, spend almost all their evenings on homework and maybe an extracurricular activity. Many students don’t go to bed until early hours in the morning. What would you rather do at 3:30 in the morning after a long day at school, read a book or get two and a half hours of sleep before you have to do it again? I get that our teachers want what is best for us, but the unfair accusations are piling up and creating an environment of mutual disrespect between teachers and their students.