How Reading Often Begins at Centenary Long Before the Syllabus

Centenary is a college that takes pride in small classrooms, dialogue-driven learning, and a commitment to the liberal arts. However, for many students, it is likely that the habits that have allowed them to succeed in such an environment have not started with a syllabus or a table in a seminar room. These habits started in a much earlier setting, perhaps in a nonacademic way, where reading had a sense of being personal rather than academic.

Well, for me, being literate did not start in an academic way. Being literate started with proximity.

I was eight years old and more concerned with recess time and afternoon snacks than with reading in general. But I had a best friend named Avery, and she loved books. She read them in class during lunchtimes, during naps, and during any moments when words were accessible. I enjoyed books, but I did not grasp why she considered them so important.

Such an understanding began with a call to come over one afternoon after school. Her room seemed less like a child's room and more like a living archive. Books spilled from shelves, baskets, and the floor. Labeling pens lined her shelves, categorizing books with such headings as "Favorites" and "Books I Want Grace to Read." She presented me with a beat up copy of Matilda, saying I would like it.

No explanation existed. Just trust.

This is an experience Centenary students face every day in their classrooms and dorms: learning is a relationship. Before reading can be analytical or critical, it must become relational. We learn because someone we admire or respect shows an interest in learning.

As students progress in life, they become socialized to read. Tasks replace curiosity. Analysis replaces immersion. However, students with confidence in reading and writing abilities when they come to Centenary may have such confidence based on early experiences in which a connection, rather than an obligation, existed.

In middle school, reading grew to be a sanctuary for me, a quiet refuge when the social undercurrents were overwhelming. At the same time, in a way, I began learning the mechanics of language: how writers encode emotion, how an argument builds, and where meaning resides. Such knowledge informs me today in Centenary’s discussion-driven curriculum, where close reading and nuanced comment matter.

"Naturally gifted" readers, professors say, are a type of reader that other people aspire to be. But confidence in language requires a series of small moments that don't have much to do with academia: exchanging books, reading together, and an interest in someone else's passion.

To this day, I trade books with my best friend. When a major event takes place in our lives, we discuss it and then go on to find a relevant story. This influence remains with me in college when I read, write, and think about ideas.

Centenary focuses on education with a whole-person view. The recognition of the informal basis of literacy encourages an awareness of the fact that education begins before school days. Education begins with trust, curiosity, and risk. A book is placed in your hands, and you are expected to grow into it.