The Prince’s Reading Challenge
If I’d been asked in 1997 how I might encourage youngsters to read more, I dare say I might have come up with some worthy ideas. I would never have thought to have a single mother sit in an Edinburgh café writing stories about children having fun learning magic. But Harry Potter had them queueing up at midnight to buy the books.
JK Rowling had 13 publishers’ rejection slips from editors looking for books set on a council estate where the female protagonist was coping with an unemployed drunken and violent father, a drug-addict brother and a criminal uncle. They didn’t want stories about a boy wizard.
Now here’s my take on the Prince of Wales’s Reading Challenge. Its purpose is to encourage young people to engage deeply with literature, philosophy, history, science, and the arts, building a cultural foundation as rewarding as physical activities and adventure are in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme.
Its reading list would be a curated canon of, say, 100 works across different disciplines and cultures. These might include classic novels (e.g. Dickens, Austen, Achebe, García Márquez), foundational science texts (e.g. Darwin, Galileo, Watson & Crick), history and politics (e.g. Herodotus, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Locke), philosophy and ideas (e.g. Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, David Hume). There would be plays, poetry, and epics (e.g. Shakespeare, Homer, Sartre).
The levels of achievement would set so that Bronze meant 33 books completed, Silver for 66 books, and Gold for 100 books completed
After each book, participants would take an online reflective test, with multiple-choice comprehension set and marked by AI.
There could be a community element. Just as the Duke of Edinburgh scheme involves teamwork, this program could encourage book discussion circles, online or in person, debate clubs around themes in the books, and cross-cultural exchanges (pairing schools in different countries)
The award winners, Bronze, Silver, and Gold, would receive certificates presented formally, with Gold-level achievers invited to a special event at a royal palace, echoing the Duke of Edinburgh Gold ceremonies.
The benefit of such a scheme would be to stimulate reading and critical thinking among young people, to promote global cultural literacy, not just the Englishcanon. It would develop empathy and communication skills through discussions, and would balance the Duke of Edinburgh Scheme’s focus on the body with a celebration of the mind.
Would it attract young people? Yes, it might, and it would be a good thing to add to one’s CV.
Madsen Pirie