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Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

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Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#361

Post by Aerroon »

bluerooibos wrote: post #99
gwbas1c wrote: post #88

Take a closer look at how much homework children have, and how much assigned, mandatory reading children have. I went to a private "college prep" high school, and the amount of assigned, mandatory reading was insane. I spent so much time reading assigned novels that I just didn't have time to read for pleasure. (And why read for pleasure if I already spent 30+ minutes reading a boring / awful novel as part of my home…

> rediscovered reading Any tips? I didn't, somehow. After leaving high school, then university, my brain went into full on "be productive all the time" mode. My brain somehow doesn't think reading is a good use of my time, so I've settled for audiobooks when falling asleep or on long drives. The last book I was able to devour and actually enjoyed was the Harry Potter series, which ended just before I went to universi…

Maybe it's a problem of taste? Maybe you don't like the books you've tried to read because of the contents of the book?

From what's popular these days I think you should try reading: The Martian and Cradle. If you don't like it then stop reading and go for something else.

If you want to try a lot of different stuff I would recommend trying web novel on sites like RoyalRoad, Web novel, Scribblehub. Just pick something, read a bit. If you don't like it, find something new.

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#362

Post by honzabe »

If I had to make kids read, I would make reading forbidden. There is something about reading as a duty that kills the joy, and others already described it better than I could. I loved reading as I kid, and I was lucky I had read most of the books I love before they were assigned, but I especially loved reading the forbidden books - I grew up in communist Czechoslovakia and reading the "Hedgehog in the Cage" series secretly borrowed from a friendly neighbor was magical. That series is unfortunately totally unknown in the West, but for Czech kids of my generation, that was our Harry Potter.

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#363

Post by bruce511 »

kqr wrote: post #353
gregjor wrote: post #347

My oldest daughter could read at age four. By second grade, in a Texas public school, she liked to read Nancy Drew mysteries on her own. One day she came home from school crying and told us she didn't want to go back -- she said she had got in trouble for reading her book. Her mom and I went to talk to the teacher. Our daughter had got "caught" reading a Nancy Drew book at her desk while the other kids -- many of who…

Home schooling is illegal in my jurisdiction but this entire discussion is making me think about it more and more. A question though: does homeschooling require essentially that the entire family can be supported on one salary? (Either by one parent working and the other teaching, or two parents working but paying a full time tutor which becomes a 2-1=1 sort of thing anyway.)

Home schooling is a complex topic, and one end of a broad spectrum. I wasn't home schooled, but my wife did home school the kids to about grade 4, and yep, she didn't have a salary in that time.

But home schooling is a nuclear option. For most people it's not a realistic option.

Of course, as parents, we're always home schoolers, even if the kids are at school during the day. There are so many ways to stimulate and engage (especially younger) children.

Reading is one avenue, but its not for everyone. Some get into cooking, or nature, (or programming) or music or art, or whatever. Interests change as they grow.

Reading young is very empowering. My parents taught me to read before I went to school. Reading to very younger children helps them understand the concept of stories. (I read a chapter of Swiss Family Robinson to the kids when the oldest was like 6. Hint: some editing and commentary is required - it was written in a different age.)

There are also schools with good teachers, and ones with crap teachers. Sometimes you get lucky. Some kids are good at adapting to adults not having their best day, others not as much.

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#364

Post by gnicholas »

btilly wrote: post #291
nytesky wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out elementary and middle schools have a no to low homework policy. By high school the most they assign to non AP courses is 15 min per class. Only assignment is reading 30 min a night, any book they want (including graphic novels). Yet that does not foster a love of reading. I had a ton of homework, but still read a book a week (though I did not do sports, only band, so had way more time than most mainstream student…

Our? Where? My kids had far more than that.

Not GP, but that's what we see in Menlo Park public schools.

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#365

Post by zarzavat »

kqr wrote: post #353
gregjor wrote: post #347

My oldest daughter could read at age four. By second grade, in a Texas public school, she liked to read Nancy Drew mysteries on her own. One day she came home from school crying and told us she didn't want to go back -- she said she had got in trouble for reading her book. Her mom and I went to talk to the teacher. Our daughter had got "caught" reading a Nancy Drew book at her desk while the other kids -- many of who…

Home schooling is illegal in my jurisdiction but this entire discussion is making me think about it more and more. A question though: does homeschooling require essentially that the entire family can be supported on one salary? (Either by one parent working and the other teaching, or two parents working but paying a full time tutor which becomes a 2-1=1 sort of thing anyway.)

> does homeschooling require essentially that the entire family can be supported on one salary?

Yes. The main purpose of government schools is to provide a place to park children so that their parents can be more economically efficient. At least in my country, the “learning” supposedly provided is a secondary priority (your country may be different). My government is very concerned that children go to school, they are somewhat less concerned about what happens when they get there.

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#366

Post by nevdka »

Maybe the books that they're trying to market aren't books that kids want to read. There are a couple of quotes that point to that:

> Connor was more blunt: “Maybe you think a book about a school shooting is really important,” she said, “but kids want to read a fun book. That’s what kids want today—they want to have fun.”

> But if you’re a new author who’s written a quiet, issue-oriented debut, “you might have to think about adapting, in a way.”

> Eberly, the book agent, doesn’t think the supply of serious, “award-winning” books will dry up. “Knowing the editors that I sell to, those are the types of books they want to shepherd into the world.”

Maybe kids would rather read fun adventure stories rather than the issue-driven stories that adults are pushing on them.

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#367

Post by 7952 »

tigen wrote: post #288
SpaceManNabs wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teachers are leaving the profession en masse because they feel unsafe, unsupported, underpaid, and harassed by national organizations. Teacher unions list book bans as one of the primary reasons for leaving. They have data and testimony backing that up. We see legislation and organizations all over America. Here is a quick article describing the number of books being banned and the effects it has on teachers [1]. It…

From first principles, it is normal to ban material. The ages and exact policies are debatable but these articles are entirely one-sided. It appears that most of the handwringing is about politically disagreeing with the bans, not hardships of obeying bans. There are always bans. But they want this material (sexuality, gender, "race theory") available even to pretty young children because of their societal goals/agen…

There seems to be a lot of "first principles" thinking in this debate which leaves out essential factors. It ignores that children have brains of their own with likes and dislikes who will readily decide for themselves how much they like a book. It gives no benefit of the doubt or generosity to school staff. And it ignores the fact that good libraries are historically a mix of lots of different content that is clearly not all good.

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#368

Post by lostlogin »

tigen wrote: post #179
lostlogin wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the argument is quite subtle. There is a lot of book banning occurring and the rate seems to be increasing fast (see links below). There are penalties in some jurisdictions and zero teachers want to face the kind of shit that has gone on with parents and politicians, churches and local body meetings. So rather than search out each book they have and keep track of its status, then recheck a few weeks later, ju…

That pen.org article focuses on "number of bannings" but mixes together state law (predominantly Florida alone) and individual school district policy choices. It also avoids discussing which age is appropriate for these topics. Most of the support for including explicit sexual violence seems to be about high school, and even there it's not clear that explicit content is necessary to these purposes (I'm not familiar w…

> It also avoids discussing which age is appropriate for these topics.

A professional with training and some sort of certification could decide this, based on the child’s age and development level. A teacher for example.

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#369

Post by tarsinge »

bluerooibos wrote: post #99
gwbas1c wrote: post #88

Take a closer look at how much homework children have, and how much assigned, mandatory reading children have. I went to a private "college prep" high school, and the amount of assigned, mandatory reading was insane. I spent so much time reading assigned novels that I just didn't have time to read for pleasure. (And why read for pleasure if I already spent 30+ minutes reading a boring / awful novel as part of my home…

> rediscovered reading Any tips? I didn't, somehow. After leaving high school, then university, my brain went into full on "be productive all the time" mode. My brain somehow doesn't think reading is a good use of my time, so I've settled for audiobooks when falling asleep or on long drives. The last book I was able to devour and actually enjoyed was the Harry Potter series, which ended just before I went to universi…

Regarding time reading is faster than listening. Also way more efficient than movies, series or video games. I can’t play story based video games anymore like Witcher 3 because at one point I’m like I’m wasting so much time compared if I was just reading the book.

Also books are less isolating than listening, for example if you are in a park with nature sounds.

If you enjoyed The Expanse you could try the last 3 books. If you haven’t read for a long time it’ll be hard at first to stay focused but by the middle of the book you should hopefully get the feeling of wanting to pick the book anytime like a new episode of the show just dropped.

Re: Book people think they know why 9-year-olds stop reading for fun

#370

Post by squigz »

gregjor wrote: post #347

My oldest daughter could read at age four. By second grade, in a Texas public school, she liked to read Nancy Drew mysteries on her own. One day she came home from school crying and told us she didn't want to go back -- she said she had got in trouble for reading her book. Her mom and I went to talk to the teacher. Our daughter had got "caught" reading a Nancy Drew book at her desk while the other kids -- many of who…

The American public school system does indeed seem broken. Fixing it, like most other public institutions, is going to be difficult.

For what it's worth, my experience in Canadian public schools was not at all like this.

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