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Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

nbcnews.com

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Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#211

Post by cucumber3732842 »

helterskelter wrote: post #108
larrik wrote: post #33

It's worse than this. I have kids in school. Our school system is one of the top in Connecticut, which is the quintessential "school" state (if any rich kid on TV goes away to school, it's probably to CT). These kids (all of them, not mine) can't really read. Not like when I was young. (I'm not even old! I graduated in the 2000's!) They certainly can't write. They have no stamina to do an essay or a test like when I…

I read an Economist article a few years ago that mentioned a literature professor at Columbia who said that most his undergrad freshmen students have never read a book cover to cover. Of those that have, their favorites were young adult fiction. Most of his students couldn't even focus on a single sonnet. Apparently kids nowadays are having difficulty focusing on individual sentences, and a lot of them are just effec…

"[as they grow up] these covid kids are gonna move like a wave through everything that requires literacy"

-some teacher from Brooklyn that I know

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#212

Post by DocTomoe »

So ... kids did read more in a time the single most influential kids book series was popular as compared to today? Surprise.

Kids did read more when stories were more about friendship, horses and/or adventure and sci-fi rather than pre-approved content-filtered social studies messaging? Surprise.

The obvious solution would be to force kids to read more from the approved reading list, courtesy by the school board⸮ That'll make them enjoy reading again⸮

(I am not saying technology is innocent in this development. I'm saying: there are several factors, and screen time is by far not the only one.

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#213

Post by qwery »

mrob wrote: post #183
watwut wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Young adult is NOT 11-15 year olds. By literally any definition. > I think the curriculum generally agrees and assigns what we'd call adult literature in high school English. The curriculum assigns what they should read to get overview of history of literature and general education. You are not meant to like most of it, you are meant to learn about the writer and period from it. The curriculum does not assigns what t…

"Young adult" in this context is a publishing industry marketing tactic. It doesn't refer to actual adults. The target audience is mostly children who want to feel like they're getting away with something they're not supposed to.

If by 'publishing industry marketing tactic' you mean a demographic, age range and to some extent (you can argue with this one) a genre, sure.

It doesn't refer to "actual adults", no: The age range is usually said to be 13..18.

The target audience is largely teenagers who want to read what they want to read.

What's your problem with "kids" reading books, anyway?

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#214

Post by DocTomoe »

damnesian wrote: post #2

The acceleration point for both age groups studied is 2012. What happened that year? The article doesn't try to answer this. Might be mentioned in the study I suppose.

Late December 2010 was the last release of a Harry Potter movie, cutting off the movie -> book pipeline.

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#215

Post by DocTomoe »

Theodores wrote: post #27

In the olden days you could not stop some children from reading, and parents could be heard telling their kids 'don't stay up too late reading', as if it could be a problem. For many, school holidays was when a lot of reading happened. Lord of the Rings would need a summer, and much literature was required to be part of the 'in group'. This would start at a young age, much like how eight year old kids need Roblox to…

> parents could be heard telling their kids 'don't stay up too late reading', as if it could be a problem. F

Having lived on this planet for a while now, I am under the impression that anything non-adults do always is a problem, no matter what it is.

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#217

Post by jdw64 »

Realistically speaking, I also think of this as a kind of evolutionary process. It is about obtaining necessary information within the flood of information. I do think the amount of reading is important, but I also wonder whether unconditionally suppressing dopamine is the right approach. Wouldn't we become more vulnerable if we were raised in a sterile environment?

I think the middle ground is important.

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#218

Post by TitaRusell »

weedfroglozenge wrote: post #158
NeutralCrane wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s absolutely a bad thing, and there’s extensive research demonstrating it

Perhaps the research is wrong though because our way of thinking has been "slow, controlled, non intensive". Now that technology CAN give us content at faster speeds, isn't it better for the brains to change to adapt to the short form cycles? Otherwise you'll be left behind stuck on topic one when the new generation have absorbed 1, 2, 3, 4. etc.

Call me old fashioned but I do not think complicated topics can be summarised in a Tweet.

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#219

Post by ethagnawl »

cwbaker400 wrote: post #95
hahajk wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not necessarily that simple. Both I and my wife read, almost every week I read my daughter passages I've come across in my books, we have bookshelves in every room. We read to our younger children and they enjoy being read to. I told my daughter that when I was her age I liked to read Animorphs, and girls were reading Babysitter's Club. She brought home these books from the school library and... they were graphi…

I logged in especially to second what lukewrites has said. My kids both started on and enjoyed graphic novels, then progressed to reading chapter books without pictures etc, I'd say in part because of the graphic novels.

My son is in this transition phase right now. There are some of these "dumb" series which offer books ranging from mostly-image-some-text, some-images-some-text to text. The prose offerings are a great on/off ramp, since he knows the characters and conventions. I see absolutely nothing wrong with this trajectory and really don't even care how dumb, simple, whatever these books may be: my son is reading grade levels ahead of the rest of his class and these books have been a major contributor to his success.

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#220

Post by TitaRusell »

riffraff wrote: post #153
eru wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funnily enough, smart phones (and previous feature phones with their SMS) have probably gotten more people into reading and writing for leisure than any other technology since the printing press. Granted, people are not doing any long form reading and writing on these devices, but they are reading and writing.

I disagree, people used to read newspapers and magazines. Even if you were not an intellectual or interested in politics you'd read the sports daily, or the gossip column. This activity has largely disappeared.

Yeah obviously they still teach letters at school. People can read their name.

But reading a long form article about the Iran war? It looks bleak.

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