The reading response runs The New School as the most common assignment given to students. It tests our understanding and comprehension of a wide span of writers, including Hemingway, Joyce, Didion, and Kafka. But they’re evil, right?
I realize it’s ironic that I’m writing an essay about the evilness of writing essays. And don’t get me wrong, I very much understand the need for these response papers and that they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. That makes me sad, but that doesn’t make me like them any more.
I know, they provide our professors with tangible proof for the final grade we receive; my three class syllabi state that the reading responses are responsible for 30% to 40% of my end-of-semester grade. They are a way to show the administration that academia is alive and well at The New School. They also fill the dead time during class when professors need something to talk about. How many times has your professor, out of topics to discuss, said, “What did you write about for your reading response?” And then the conversation picks up again!
“It’s much better to organize your thoughts on paper in terms of sentences and paragraphs than notes,” Lang fiction professor James Fuerst says. “It’s a springboard for conversation.”
Blair Morgan Reeves, a junior at Parsons and sophomore at Lang, says that she “hate[s] doing reading responses. I get why teachers think they are beneficial and that they make us read, but honestly [they don’t]. I don’t have the time or comprehension skills in order to read everything I’m told to in the amount of time given.”
Reeves brings up the small amount of time that students have to do all of this: Less than two days to write two, three, or four pages after reading a text twice. It’s difficult, and many times, these reading responses turn into glorified summaries with a few quotes from the story thrown in.
“Response papers in principle are logical,” Lang senior Aron Canter says. “In reality, response papers are often bullshitted and rushed, done hours before class. I personally enjoy writing them, I would say, the student body does not enjoy writing them because they don’t give them the energy or the time.”
Getting rid of reading responses would allow students to focus more intently on the actual reading and techniques the author uses. Rather than wasting time doing responses, students would have more time to do other work, relieving them of all the added pressures. Class discussions would also benefit from this because students wouldn’t just be reading their response papers; there would be actual discussions happening where one person would have an idea, then another would come back with a real-life, organic response from their mind instead of their paper. Class discussions should be happening in the moment, not preplanned the night before.
For now, though, I’ll have to rest my case. I have response papers to write.
Max is a Journalism major from Queens. He plays collegiate basketball for The New School Narwhals and spends the rest of his time watching and writing about the game.
