Field Journal-Day 1

My first day of work after being brought here, has been interesting to say the least. John, my boss, gave me an overview of the history of the future. People stopped reading and eventually the government decided to ban books by having them burned. The problem with this is that people have stopped thinking critically. They do not have access to information, differing opinions, or real education. No one can better themselves, because there is no way to.

My goal is to one-by-one show people that reading has a value to society. John, and his cohorts, goal is to bring about a Literary Enlightenment period. They are hoping that we can convert individuals into “readers” and they will in turn convert their friends, and so on and so on.

I underestimated how hard of a task this would be. It has gotten to the point here, that most people can barely read! They have a first grade reading level-how can I teach them through the satire of Jonathan Swift in A Modest Proposal, the lessons of Dicken’s in A Christmas Carol, or even, what the Bible actually says, if they can only read and comprehend One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish?

I need to re-evaluate my approach. I brought a few books with me that I thought I could easily utilize, but I may need to return to my real library back in 2018 to gather some more simple books.

-S.D.