U.S. children read, but not well or often: report
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Re: U.S. children read, but not well or often: report
#2In related news the sky is blue.
Re: U.S. children read, but not well or often: report
#3Even if YOU don't have children, this is a big deal—this essentially means a highly-illiterate work force for the future. As an educator, I can read with students in a classroom, have them read aloud, and even assign reading outside of class (which they generally don't do, mind you), but it doesn't help if adults and parents aren't making an effort to encourage by example.
If I'm a kid who wants to be a web developer one day, and I decide to follow Paul Irish on Twitter, you had better bet your buttered biscuits it makes an impact when Paul is doing nothing but tweeting links to industry articles left and right. This goes beyond the simple need of just having mommy read you a bedtime story...
Re: U.S. children read, but not well or often: report
#4It's not just kids. About 6 months ago, I started reading "Constellation Games," a really fun and clever sci-fi novel. Yet it now sits on my desk about 2/3 complete. I didn't lose interest or anything -- I simply find it increasingly difficult to set aside time for pleasure reading, for a variety of reasons. Even though I enjoy long form reading, it's now something I have to schedule and force myself to do.
I'm not sure whether I'm actually reading less in total (I don't believe so), or simply whether reading novels has been displaced by reading, say, HN and blogs. If I find it difficult these days, I can't imagine how difficult it might be for kids with (presumably) much shorter attention spans.
Re: U.S. children read, but not well or often: report
#5I do not see the problem. I have never read books for pleasure. Most of the books I own are technical or reference material that have practical applications. Why would I want to read for pleasure? I did not find anything interesting about The Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, or To Kill a Mockingbird which were standard readings when I went to school. Maybe I do not have the imaginative capacity like those people that "get lost" in books.
Re: U.S. children read, but not well or often: report
#6"Rideout cautioned that there may be difference in how people encounter text and the included studies may not take into account stories read online or on social media."
IOW, the study is completely invalid, but we'll report it anyways.
Re: U.S. children read, but not well or often: report
#7Am I the only one that finds it ironic that this article is in the "one sentence per paragraph" form that I tend to associate with bad writing (or perhaps writing aimed at people who don't read long form)? I imagine the journalists are somewhat to blame for this. I'm looking at you, Buzzfeed.
Re: U.S. children read, but not well or often: report
#8I do not see the problem. I have never read books for pleasure. Most of the books I own are technical or reference material that have practical applications. Why would I want to read for pleasure? I did not find anything interesting about The Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, or To Kill a Mockingbird which were standard readings when I went to school. Maybe I do not have the imaginative capacity like those peopl…
Standard assigned readings may not interest you precisely because they're assigned. You're telling me you've never read a novel on your own? Not Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, nothing?
Re: U.S. children read, but not well or often: report
#9The reading scores among 17-year-olds, however, remained relatively unchanged since the 1970s.
Interesting. At least they catch up.
Isn't this just another casualty of the war on public education and teaching for these stupid common core tests?
Re: U.S. children read, but not well or often: report
#10According to Jim Trelease's book, "The Read-Outloud Handbook", one of the most important things to with your kid is to read to them every night.[1] The book, from what my recollection, discusses how students in other countries, such as Finland, perform better overall because their parents tend to read to them every night.
Even someone like Warren Buffet focuses on reading - spending "80 percent" of his workday ready.[2]
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Trelease#The_Read-Aloud_Han... 2. http://theweek.com/article/index/248655/the-warren-buffett-f...