Ok, fellow professors, time to talk about the reading load issue.

Buckle up, take a chair and sit down because this is going to be a bit of tough love.
I started in the education field at a very young age. I was 11 (eleven) when I began tutoring adults.

My Mom, my Dad, my brothers, my auntie, my cousin, my niece... we all belong to the education guild. Several professors in the family.
I have argued before about REDUCING the reading load rather than increasing it or maintaining it, precisely because we are in the midst of a pandemic.

We all have opinions, and I have seen some contrary to my view.

That& #39;s just fine.

I use Twitter to express my opinions.
I am aware that we live in an era of a deluge of information. I love reading, and I read A LOT (books, articles, etc.).

I *do* agree that school (undergraduate and graduate) is useful in helping us develop reading skills that allow us to absorb a lot of info rather quickly.
My website is CHOCK FULL with strategies to read http://www.raulpacheco.org/resources/reading-strategies/

I">https://www.raulpacheco.org/resources... even developed a few specific to undergraduates http://www.raulpacheco.org/resources/resources-for-undergraduate-students/reading-strategies-for-undergraduates/

HOWEVER,">https://www.raulpacheco.org/resources... I remain unconvinced that we MUST assign the same volume of readings as we would in non-pandemic times.
I am also NOT a fan of books on "how to read strategically" that are ALMOST 400 PAGES LONG. Adler and Van Doren& #39;s book is one of the best and it& #39;s over 350 pages long. It& #39;s going to take my students forever and 3 months to finish reading A&VD http://www.raulpacheco.org/2019/08/how-to-read-a-book-the-classic-guide-to-intelligent-reading-adler-van-doren-my-reading-notes/">https://www.raulpacheco.org/2019/08/h...
There& #39;s one element that a lot of you all y& #39;all are NOT considering:

There are COMPETING DEMANDS on the time and attention of our students.

I am sure every student would love to be able to calmly sit down and read the 400 pages you assigned per class.

They probably can& #39;t.
Forget about poor internet access, lack of a quiet space to read/work/write. Their own health and that of their loved ones may potentially take a hit with COVID-19.

I very, very, very strongly believe this is a time to extend grace.

I& #39;m still going to offer strategies...
... and provide a reading list that will look *almost like* pre-pandemic times. But I& #39;m going to be very clear in saying "you& #39;ll benefit from reading EVERYTHING at some point when you can, but the key reading that I think you need to do is THIS ONE".

Strategic, smart reading.
I think that given the state of *gestures broadly and waves hands around* all of the sh*t we are all going through, we can be rigorous and teach well, providing structure, challenge and a learning experience that doesn& #39;t have a deleterious effect on our students& #39; health (or ours)
I want to end by reminding us all that these are times of pain, uncertainty, stress and worry.

Let& #39;s all try to make academia and higher education more human and humane. We are, after all, only human.

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