Namwali Serpell

This idea that we have to meet people where they are, and where they are is they haven't been given an adequate literary education.

Some of them haven't achieved literacy.

And if it comes to adult readers, these are people who are extremely stressed out by the difficulties and complexities of the world who don't have time to read.

So we have to meet them where they are.

And I just think that that is...

doing a disservice to them and it's doing a disservice to literature and to us.

We have to actually grant students especially the freedom and the space to actually learn how to read and it's almost like an opportunity.

For a long time I've banned laptops and phones in my classroom and

And I'm interested in technology.

But there was a point where I realized that for students, it was not an imposition.

It was a relief that they were actually very happy to be away from their devices and that they also really seemed to relish the courses that I've taught.

But even specifically in the course on Morrison.

Yeah.

The opportunity to read great literature and a lot of it.

And so I, you know, I asked my students to read, I think, seven of her novels and her play Desdemona.

And students did not complain.

I thought maybe they weren't actually reading.

But then one of my graduate students who was helping me teach the class did a kind of Jeopardy quiz with them.

And they all got the answers right.

They had all read these books.