interpreting literature our own way

Postman put into words everything that I’ve been questioning in my English classes since high school. She wrote, “Our job as teachers, then, is not to decide what things should mean to our students but to help them deepen and strengthen their individual readings of texts and, at the same time, to show them that other equally valid readings exist” (166).

Countless times I’ve said to my English teachers in high school, “but how do you KNOW that was what the author wanted to say?” And every time I’d asked, I’d get a vague or snippy answer to my ignorant question. Postman, in this chapter, finally answers my question! She writes that even if we did get an explanation from the author himself about what he meant in his text, it still shouldn’t matter! As times change, interpretations of the text will too. Readers should be able to get out of the text what they want, and teachers should only be there to open up their minds to other interpretations. There should be no wrong interpretations, only ones that differ from each other. Ultimately, it is up to the reader to decide which interpretation they feel is most right.

Yes, this makes grading on tests multiple choice tests difficult as there is no right or wrong interpretation, but tests can easily be remade to accommodate this idea, perhaps with the use of essay tests.

I think reading critically and for individual interpretation is one of the most important elements of literacy. Don’t we take the time to read something so that we can understand the material and not have someone just give us the interpretations? Shouldn’t we want our students to read and interpret it their own way, use our guidance if they want, chose what they want to believe, and retain what they read because it makes sense to them?