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Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class

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Re: Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class

#201

Post by trueismywork »

quasigod wrote: post #197

People rarely read whole books anymore. I know very few adults in my life who read books, lots of people are put off by reading in school and never give it a try in their adult life. I think the biggest offender is summer reading assignments. I never knew a single person that actually read their book, and being expected to spend time during break reading for a school assignment definitely creates a negative associati…

I did my PhD, and so I am not averse to reading. But its nowadays rare to find books that have value in being read completely. Most of the time, I would rather read a blog post or a paper, books are often outdated by the time they are published. Books are limited to scenarios where looking at a complete scene of something frozen in time is still instructive.

Re: Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class

#202

Post by eudamoniac »

Kim_Bruning wrote: post #92

Plausibly some kids might still be reading entire novels worth of text online on the regular. Think of all the massive fanfic archives (Including original fics) Lots of fanfic authors have fans of their own, and those have got to be coming from somewhere. It doesn't need to be in dead tree format. It doesn't need to be famous authors. Just so long as they read! For long form original see eg: * The last angel https://…

Beyond a basic level of literacy, I'm not sure it's clear that reading pulp is better for any defined outcome than reading nothing. And I'm not sure why it would be. Once you are able to fully grasp a level of literacy, reading more of that level or below probably isn't really doing anything for you.

Re: Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class

#203

Post by mattkrause »

smelendez wrote: post #163
idontwantthis wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Clark County high schools in NV, they do not read a single whole book in English classes even in honors.

Is it an aversion to assigning homework? I remember teachers assigning “read chapters 4-6 by Thursday” and then giving a quiz to make sure people read and remembered the details.

Those quizzes are part of the problem. It was so dispiriting to read, even enjoy, the assignment and then get dinged because you couldn’t remember whether the protagonist put on an otherwise irrelevant blue sweater or red jacket.

Re: Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class

#204

Post by eudamoniac »

eimrine wrote: post #84
bgbntty2 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think school ruined fiction books for me. I had to read long boring books about stories that didn't interest me, with useless sentences describing what the scene looked like or what someone had for dinner. Most of the stories and themes were outdated and didn't have enough context to make them understandable. Some books even used outdated words and phrases. Maybe if I wasn't forced to read a book in an outdated lan…

> Being forced to read and memorize poetry was the absolute shit. Yes and no. I used to start reading at 4 years old, but I forcedly used to memorize some rhymes at 3 years old. Most folk don't believe it is possible to read so early (though Eliezer Yudkowsky has reported about similar age). But my point is - how would I learn reading so early without that poetry? I don't really like poetry exactly as rest of the fic…

Nobody believes this, but I have VHS evidence of myself reading at 2

Re: Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class

#205

Post by idontwantthis »

smelendez wrote: post #163
idontwantthis wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Clark County high schools in NV, they do not read a single whole book in English classes even in honors.

Is it an aversion to assigning homework? I remember teachers assigning “read chapters 4-6 by Thursday” and then giving a quiz to make sure people read and remembered the details.

It’s the assigned district curriculum. They have a text book with excerpts.

Re: Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class

#206

Post by Aerroon »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #148
Kim_Bruning wrote: post #92

Plausibly some kids might still be reading entire novels worth of text online on the regular. Think of all the massive fanfic archives (Including original fics) Lots of fanfic authors have fans of their own, and those have got to be coming from somewhere. It doesn't need to be in dead tree format. It doesn't need to be famous authors. Just so long as they read! For long form original see eg: * The last angel https://…

> " massive fanfic archives " Ye gods, that's like saying that youth may not be willing to consume a nutritious, balanced diet but we should rejoice that they are at least consuming vast quantities of sugar and fat. With vanishingly rare exceptions, fanfic is crap in textual form, laden to bursting with literary sins both venal and mortal.

The usefulness of reading books is not about what factual information you can glean from them. They're about engaging the imagination and making you take hypothetical situations seriously. In that sense traditionally published works aren't going to offer all that much more than fanfiction.

Re: Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class

#207

Post by Aerroon »

SubmarineClub wrote: post #121
squigz wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who cares? If people enjoy it, let them enjoy it. I've read a few YA novels as an adult that I enjoyed, even though I regularly read more complex stuff. Most people, for most of history, have only ever enjoyed what might be considered "low quality" entertainment - pulp fiction, shitty plays, etc. > real novel that isn't so bounded by tropes or genre limits. Interestingly, even discounting YA and other stuff like that…

>Who cares? I do? Why would I want my kids to be consuming crap when they could be engaging with great works and high art?

If the works are so great then you've got nothing to worry about. Kids will read them on their own. Of course we both know that's not true, because the works are not that great.

Re: Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class

#208

Post by komali2 »

brightball wrote: post #118
jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you threatened me with 3+ hours a day of speed reading clocks instead of a normal summer I'd probably double down on effort too. And probably not in a way that's healthy long term.

Well, it wasn't a threat. He knew exactly what he'd been struggling with from 1st grade on (officially minor ADHD) and we were trying really hard to keep him off of medication. Since the program has finished he's asked to do it again several times (but we haven't because it's expensive). I've thought about teaching him programming by having him build his own clock trainer. It's hard to explain to random people on the…

Well that is interesting and if you had results then that's all that matters for your family of course.

But sorry to clarify I'm still hung up on the "8 handed clock" thing - what does that mean? What information is displayed on the clocks other than hours, minutes, and seconds?

Re: Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class

#209

Post by ekjhgkejhgk »

techblueberry wrote: post #198
ekjhgkejhgk wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you care so much about me? Re-reading our conversation, you were the one that asked "do you think you're an independent thinker", as if hoping for a yes so that you can then attack it. All I said is schools are mostly childcare. If you care, go check my comment history and ask about something specific.

Do you think independent thought and deep thought are correlated or uncorrelated? When you say most people copy their perspectives do you think that’s bad? A lot of the thinkers I’ve been interested in lately seem to deeply embed their thoughts in a tradition, so I’ve been thinking that in order to have better thinking I should copy more. > why do you care so much about me? Sad question, but what is life but a series…

> Yes yes, I started this as a bit of a gotcha, I have a bias against people who proclaim to be independent thinkers, and decry others as sheep (“copiers”), but I would love to be wrong!

Yes, I got this sense. I'm not what you're looking for.

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