This past week marked Townsend Harris High School’s third annual Banned Books Week, a part of the THHS Reading Initiative organized by English teacher and Classic Advisor Brian Sweeney and Librarian Arlene Laverde.. The event aims to highlight students’ ability to read books that they choose in an era where “banning” books is seen so frequently across schools in the United States.
This past Tuesday, a special schedule was put in place to dedicate a double band 4, ‘4B’ ,entirely to independent reading. Students were told to bring in any medium of literature they preferred and to spend the band reading independently.
Mr. Sweeney said that the main objective of the event is to implement “the belief that there should be time to read built into the school day.”
The allotted reading time also allowed students to step back from their regular classes and take some time to destress.
Ms. Laverde added a few words of encouragement to students in regards to reading. “I would love for you all to take a minute after reading, and simply assess how you feel. Reading for pleasure is something that just brings you a lot of joy, and it can even be seen as a mindful activity that can always help you lay back and destress.”
“I thought the event was definitely a time for me as well as other students to relax and destress for a bit,” said freshman Claire Lee.
Freshman Tajrian Noor said, “Staying back during a band to read was really fun because I’m a huge book lover and reading always brought me a sense of peace. I especially liked that people who don’t usually read books had the chance to experience the joy reading can bring.”
Sophomore Jazmine Pacheco said she “enjoyed” how the read-in showcased “everyone’s different varieties in books and their interests” through what genre they were reading. She said, “I enjoyed [how] when I looked around the classroom I could see everyone’s different varieties in books and their interests. Some of action, and some of romance, and it was nice to have that silence in the classroom where everyone can read at peace.”
For the future, Jazmine hopes that the event can occur more frequently. Jazmine says, “I want these [events] to happen more often where everyone can see a different perspective of the purpose of banned books week. I hope that other schools can learn the importance of [read-ins]..”
“A lot of young people, not just students in our school, but young people in general don’t have independent reading time in their lives. They made it a big deal in elementary and middle school, and we think it shouldn’t end in high school,” said Mr. Sweeney.
“I want students to remember that reading for fun is still a thing. In my opinion, for a student to have the necessary scores to get into THHS, they had to have read outside of school at some point, and I want you to remember that reading was once fun,” said Ms. Laverde. “The other thing I want you all to take away from this is that you all have the freedom to choose what you want to read and have access to it. This is so important for you and if we aren’t careful about it we’re going to lose access to so much information.”
