Reading Aloud (Student Choice)

February 10, 2022 

In class we briefly discussed the idea of reading out loud. I mentioned that in Saint Augustine's Confessions, he discusses the time that he saw Saint Ambrose reading silently. This was extremely confusing to Augustine because at this time people only read out loud. Dr. Redick made an interesting connection to the Library of Alexandria being an extremely loud place because everyone would be reading. This sparked my mind in thinking about why we might benefit from reading out loud today. Growing up, my father used to read to my every night and obviously he would read out loud. I always felt like I got the most out of books that were read out loud because I was able to put myself into the story. I suppose audiobooks are the modern example of reading out loud that are most commonly used. I think one of the main reasons that reading out loud can be so useful is that it forces the reader to slow down and not rush through the text. It is radically opposed to the culture of rushing and speed reading that we have today. I am going to attempt to do more reading out loud even in my daily reading and homework. 

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