When you ask your peers what their plans for after school are, the most common answers are “homework, Netflix, sleep.” Rarely do you hear someone say, “I am going home and reading this book I found.” The reading that plenty of students do is simply for school. They do not enjoy reading, instead, they see it as a task.

That desire to read gets killed off as students are forced to read new books and thoroughly annotate them. There is a positive side to annotations, as the student is able to improve their comprehension. However, the love for reading dies once you have to dissect the little pieces of a book, instead of simply reading it and getting lost in that world. Those who have absolutely loved reading when they were younger struggle to pick up a book, sit down and enjoy reading it. Most see reading as a task that they must complete. Reading should not be a punishment, instead, reading, similar to arts and sports, should be something one enjoys to do.

One way for teachers to be able to help the students find a passion for reading is to simply have them read books and then have discussions about them. Figure out what the story was, but do not have a student write or annotate the books, instead, it should be more like an outside reading book project. Encourage kids to wonder about the book and find an interest in what they read.

Reading has become something that people deem as uncool, something that you should never be caught doing. That is completely the opposite of what it should be. In reality, reading enhances your learning opportunities by heightening brain connectivity.

According to the study When We Read from Bustle.com, “The connection between the left temporal cortex of the brain — the area associated with language reception — is heightened. What’s more, that heightened activity continues for several days following reading.”

Reading is everywhere; it is nearly impossible to go a day without reading anything, from reading your texts, scrolling through memes, receiving Snapchats from your friends, all the way to reading novels and articles for your classes.

From a young age, kids are introduced to reading. Before babies are even able to speak, parents are reading short stories to their children. Bedtime stories become favorite. Reading slowly becomes a part of everyone’s life. Shortly after you learn the alphabet, you are able to put those words into sentences which create books. Those books people read and truly find delight in. Reading introduces you to a whole different universe. From the second you flip to the first page until you close the book on the last page you are in a new world. Take a chance and spend some time reading for pleasure.