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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

#501

Post by johncearls »

knallfrosch wrote: post #387
Modified3019 wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another thing is the mandated reading comes with punishment attached. One goes into it knowing that they’ll have to puke out some key points, contort bullshit into an intro-body-conclusion format, or worse, overanalyze it for “meaning”. Early in high school among other things I had to read was “The Veldt”. Of course I hated dealing with it like everything else. I couldn’t have even told you who the author was a few w…

>>overanalyze it for “meaning”.<< I doubt overanalyzing actually happens. But pupils, including younger me, just don't understand how much more work and thought have gone into the legends they are reading. Yes, it's a 500 page tome. No, neither the blooming flower nor its color on page 356, line 38 are "random" and them symbolizing the meaning of life isn't "bullshit." Yes, a work like this happens only once a decade…

There isn’t any symbolysm. The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man. The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish. The shark are all sharks no better and no worse. All the symbolism that people say is s*t.

- Ernest Hemingway

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

#502

Post by smegger001 »

everforward wrote: post #460
alpinisme wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is 30 minutes really the amount of novel reading we find unacceptable these days? I’m not asking quite as snarkily as that sounds. Do you think the problem would be alleviated if the hours of class time were shorter and (maybe) handed over to a study hall period or even to just being sent home? In college I know the theory is supposed to be that one hour of class time equals two hours of homework (though that rarely…

Half an hour is fine, it’s really the cumulative volume. If a kid has 7 classes and each gives half an hour of homework, that’s 3.5 hours of homework. Add on the classes and they’re “working” 11.5 hours a day or 57.5 hours per week, every week. That would be concerning for adults, it’s well into burnout territory. Then we want to act surprised when kids don’t want to read on their own and only want to play video game…

I would dissagree on the chemistry. A working knowledge of chemistry is quiet valuable in the kitchen. Understanding of the maillard reaction, or of caramelization is useful for making better tasting food. I keep pH strips in my kitchen for use in making ferments, understanding chemistry will make it intuitive which foods to cook on cast iron or not to because the acids will eat the pans seasoning. Knowledge of polymerization lets know you can wash the cast frying pan despite the folk wisdom to the contray.

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

#503

Post by dpig_ »

playing_colours wrote: post #465
RoyalHenOil wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If such things influence works of fiction, they must surely influence works of nonfiction just as much, if not more so — yet I never had a schoolteacher ask me to analyze nonfiction writings anywhere close to the depth I had to analyze novels. It wasn't until the tertiary level that I first analyzed science writings and related philosophy writings to a similar depth (albeit for a different purpose), and discovered to…

Can you share any example of non-fiction literature with beauty and humanity? Thanks!

Try Oliver Sacks.

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

#504

Post by RecycledEle »

coldtea wrote: post #24
RecycledEle wrote: post #9

When you can read for fun, it's fun. When your teacher criticizes you for not reading the boring book he/she ordered you to read, you stop enjoying reading and stop reading. It's the teachers' faults.

Kids read 50x as much at times teachers were even more strict and critical of them, so clearly it's not that. The mass availability of low effort digital entertainment options is what made the difference

My comment is based on my person experience as a student.
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