everything in their educations to that point had prepared them for interrogating and unpacking, demystifying and subverting, all of the most important critical acts of reading against the grain, but too little emphasis had been placed on the acts of paying attention, of listening, of reading with rather than reading against.
This quote reveals a lot about education and expectations from students. Throughout my high school years, all readings were so focused on symbolism and pointing out all of these parts of books and articles that in the grand scheme, didn't make a difference to the point of the article. When I arrived for my first year of university it was a shift I had to make, because reading was no longer so focused on these minute details but rather more about understanding the content that was being presented.