Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class

Post by Kim_Bruning » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 1:10 PM UTC

Post by lotsofpulp » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 1:14 PM UTC

aaplok wrote: post #69

DaSHacka wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, as we've seen recently, you can force them and they still won't be literate enough.

You could force kids to read books without forcing which books to read. The issue as always is to find a balance between giving kids agency and making sure they do what's right.

Post by malnourish » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 1:21 PM UTC

wavemode wrote: post #10

robcohen wrote: post #6

It just seems to me that the entire purpose of school is not clear. What precisely is the purpose of "English" class? What? To read and speak English? Ok, then why can't kids test out of it most of the time? Is the purpose to be knowledgeable about a canon of literature? Why can't people test against that? The truth is that pedagogy and instruction is just a lazy way of providing childcare. So who cares what they do…

It's about practicing how to read and write. Skills that you'll benefit from in every form of knowledge work that you'll ever do. I would cut almost every other class from the curriculum before cutting English.

Post by lm28469 » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 1:24 PM UTC

jhanschoo wrote: post #76

tyleo wrote: post #40

Comments here are very strange, “Reading books should go the way of cursive! Education is more like childcare anyways.” It’s bizarre stuff to say. What would you have the education system do? Put iPads in front of kids all day?

Maybe literature is just a terrible medium for culture except for the relatively brief period in human history when they were extraordinarily cheap to produce and disseminate compared to other cultural products. Edit: but insofar as media criticism in education is bound to the book rather than the dominant forms of the day, I think children are being done a disservice.

Post by lm28469 » Sun, Dec 14, 2025, 1:27 PM UTC

bgbntty2 wrote: post #72

floren wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most of the stories and themes were outdated and didn't have enough context to make them understandable. Some books even used outdated words and phrases. no cap Mr Darcy ur parties are bussin fr fr

I should've used "archaic" instead of "outdated". As in, "incomprehensible to someone speaking proper modern $language". Without a dictionary, a normal student couldn't understand what was being said in many sentences throughout the book. Some books actually had a dictionary in the end, but not for all the archaic words and phrases.