UMass Dartmouth professors Robert Waxler and Maureen Hall are
making the case that the growing infatuation with online
communication and movement away from traditional reading is
damaging students' ability to learn. In Transforming Literacy:
Changing Lives Through Reading and Writing, Waxler, (an English
professor) and Hall (A Fulbright Scholar in education) assert
the value and relevance of reading, especially of great novels
and poetry, in the education of citizens for the 21st century.
Of particular interest is their discussion of recent research
suggesting the damage that may be done to students' neural
circuitry in moving away from a traditional reading culture to
an online one. In the view of Waxler and Hall, the classroom is
the best place to reinvigorate the quest for what it means to be
truly human, through a focus on language and literature,
intelligent and passionate discussion, story and self-
reflection. Through a number of examples, they show how
literature can excite the imagination and stir the