Reading for Capitalist Pleasure

In Yanis Varoufakis’ excellent and very accessible economics book ‘Talking to My Daughter About the Economy’ he states that the capitalist system has led to a situation where exchange values now triumph over experiential values.  What does this mean? And why is that so problematic for teachers when encouraging students to read?

Before I get onto that though, I want to tell you about another book that I was reading at the same time as Yanis’ book and that was Peter Crouch’s ‘How To Be A Footballer’.  It’s quite an interesting read but what most struck me was when he discussed the issue of signing autographs. I have to admit, I’ve been one of those people waiting at the gates with my son, hoping to get a famous footballer’s autograph. When you finally get one, you walk off with a little skip in your step knowing that it has made your boy’s day. At home, we used to then stick them into a book and flick through all the pages and play ‘Six Degrees of Separation’.  I also did this when I was younger, in fact my first autograph was one by Graham Miles at Pontins. If you know who he is, then congratulations, you’re as old as me!

The value for my son and I of getting an autograph was the experience of actually meeting one of the players (or at least being close to them) and having a record of it. At no point were we thinking about the exchange value of that autograph. At no point did we think ‘Great! We’ve got Trevor Brooking’s autograph, let’s flog it on Ebay!’ but if you read Peter Crouch’s book, that is what he suggests is now the norm in the autograph world. It has become a market. One where a person will turn up with a photo of Crouch or a shirt of Crouch and get him to sign it in the knowledge that it will have some sort of exchange value. When Crouch started ignoring the adults, they’d send their kids in to get the autographs. Now he does the footballer thing and tries not to notice the autograph hunters which, if you think about it, is incredibly sad.

Hopefully that explains the difference between exchange values and experiential value and if you think about it, Yanis is right. Due to the capitalist system, everything nowadays must have an exchange value or there is no point in doing it within a market system.

And this is problem for teachers. Reading a book for students is now no longer about the experience of escaping into another world and seeing things from another person’s perspective or learning new things, it’s all about the exchange value of reading a book. Will it help me get a better grade at GCSE or A Level? Will it look good on my personal statement for UCAS? Will it help me get a job? And in many respects, we as teachers facilitate that viewpoint. I certainly do although I try desperately not to.

This is why I get mildly gobsmacked these days when I see one of my students reading a book that has nothing to do with their studies.  It is such a rare occurrence I have to stop and talk to them about it. And mostly it’s girls.

So how do we buck the system in school when ultimately we have an economic system that Yanis writes so beautifully about in his book? Where exchange value has triumphed over experiential value. In a world where the market system has been introduced into the school system through league tables and plenty of competition. Where time is at such a premium for students that reading for pleasure seems an utter waste of time.

I don’t think there are any easy answers…obviously start them young but even then, the drop-off at GCSE and A-Level is obvious to see. Role modelling is clearly important. Even though I’m an Economics teacher and I do read a lot of economics books, I share my love of graphic novels with my students and the poetry books I have been reading – check out Raymond Antrobus! I bring in the majority of books that I read into the classroom for students to take so that there is no financial barrier to reading. I liked reading this blog about a ‘Read Aloud’ programme that was introduced at a school by @MissJoT and I think the books chosen are great as it’s not obvious that they are about exchange value. Any communal discussion about books between students (and staff) has to be a good thing and should encourage wider reading. Having a great library (and librarian) obviously helps and schools need to make sure that funding in that area doesn’t get cut so that they can be pro-active in promoting reading and if that costs a bit of money by getting an author in, then so be it.

I’m sure there are probably lots of good things going on out there in schools with regards ‘reading for pleasure’ and I’d love to hear them but as Yanis points out in his book, the capitalist system has changed hugely the way we think about a lot of things, be it collecting autographs or reading books and that is something that teachers will always be fighting against. The answer simply might be just to give in and go with the flow…now who wants a Trevor Brooking signed photo for a fiver?