The National Education Curriculum strongly influences students' attitudes toward reading. Reading is a skill; and a skill can only be acquired through learning and practice. Children who want to swim have no other choice but to practice swimming again and again. It also happens with reading skills.
Once the reading skill is acquired, it needs exercising to sharpen it. However, what most Indonesian students learn at school is how to find out what a text is about or how to locate particular information. They learn little on how to practice reading again and again, let alone to develop it into a habit since that is what the curriculum demands. If the curriculum fails to facilitate a reading culture, what or who can?
An epigraph in Jo Ann Aebersold and Mary Lee Field's book From Reader to Reading Teacher (1997) says, "Reading is like an infectious disease: it is caught not taught.(And you can't get it from someone who hasn't got it.)" Since it is infectious, it will mostly be acquired from those who learners are in touch with: families, school, and environment.
Children in developed countries grow up with reading since they live in a reading environment both at home and at school. Having reading as part of their life, Western parents even read for their babies. A small number of Indonesian parents read instead of telling stories to their toddlers and provide books to instill a love for reading in their kids because of their awareness of the significance of reading.
Definitely, these parents belong to the middle and upper class society. The problem lies with the middle-low class families, to whom books are a luxury and reading is a distant activity even though they realize that education is important.
Considering parents' perceptions, the National Education Ministry needs to be more assertive in encouraging reading habits among students, including extensive reading in the national curriculum as an inseparable part of the teaching of Indonesian and English with the higher levels "forcing" parents to be involved in their children's reading activities because it is a school subject. Parental involvement is significant, particularly with young learners, since extensive reading should be done outside class and school hours.
Moreover, when aimed at building an enjoyment of reading, extensive reading enables learners to pick out texts or stories of their preference; thus, bringing a motivating atmosphere to reading and learning. Besides, the nature of extensive reading calls for a different type of assessment.
Unlike intensive reading, which is mainly targeted at text comprehension as what has been done at school, extensive reading allows learners to express what they think of a text and why, and relate the text to their life as well as share their experience with the text.
When reasons are emphasized and appreciated, even young learners will not be doubtful in giving opinions and, at the same time, exercising their reasoning skills. Older students can share and comment on what they have read as well as their friends' both in spoken and written forms.
When they are accustomed to support their comments with arguments, their speaking and writing skills will also be enhanced - not ones of nonsense, but expressing arguments with logical supports. Thus, students practice to improve their higher thinking skills - to give reason and to evaluate others' opinion, which is greatly required at higher academic levels.
Including extensive reading in the national curriculum implies that schools need to provide reading materials of gradual levels of difficulty. This should not be an obstacle for some schools. Unfortunately, many schools prefer spending their budget on air conditioners and sports facilities rather than good, interesting books. Having extensive reading in their curriculum will force these schools to allocate funds for their library.
How the government perceives reading and its role in education will shape the public view of reading. If reading is considered to be as crucial as math and physics, schools and parents will spend time, energy, and money to instill a love for reading in the younger generation.
The writer is a teacher at The Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga. She is currently under-taking Master's Degree in Literatur at, Diponegoro University, Semarang.
