What is Digg?334 Comments
- inactive, on 02/04/2008, -8/+143Kids also hate books because public schools make books boring by assigning chapters to read and setting due dates. Reading books at one's own pace is the only way to read books well.
- Azzrael, on 02/04/2008, -6/+66If Harry Potter book sales are anything to judge by, tons of kids like books...
- stevebee, on 02/04/2008, -3/+59Kids hate books when they can't actually read. Think I'm wrong? Try asking some kids to read out loud. You will be amazed at how many of them can barely do it. And that includes college freshmen@@@
- frsrblch, on 02/04/2008, -1/+55I'm sure they could find some better reading material too...
- stilesja, on 02/04/2008, -1/+53Yeah, I'm sure that wouldn't look like the comments section of myspace....
- GoKings, on 02/04/2008, -1/+44We tend to hate books because the curriculum is based on dumbed down books, that offer little of excitement to the newer generation. There are so many books out there that work your mind, make you use intellect, etc. Instead, they insist on putting drab and mundane material that make kids want to tear their hair out.
Just once I'd like to hear a (high school) teacher be like, "Ok kids, we're going to read Blood Meridian" or even "Ok kids, take out your copies of 1984" Instead it's teachers busting out dumbed down, and horribly selected books. It is DEFINITELY worth mentioning however, that this does not just apply to American students.
In fact, not so long ago this was news in London...
"Around 50 schools have refused to stock literary works by the likes of Jane Austen, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens after admitting that youngsters also find them boring."
"Critics said the figures are a damning indictment of the quality of state education in the UK and come at a time when fewer than half of all teenagers are achieving basic standards in GCSE English."
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-2338972 ... - michaelpinto, on 02/04/2008, -4/+45Kids take after their parents — how many parents are reading books? Also that article is a bit all over the place, firstly cell phones play a much larger role in Japanese society than the US so the concept of people reading books on them may not translate from culture to culture. In fact I bet more folks are "reading" books via listening to them on an iPod rather than using something like the Kindle (which may be why Amazon purchased Audible). Secondly kids are reading books! In fact one of the hottest growing markets for book publishers are translated manga from Japan and the main audience is tween and teen girls.
- georgemason01, on 02/04/2008, -1/+40"Books suck."
"Yeah."
"Let's go break stuff."
- Beavis and Butthead - spineaches, on 02/04/2008, -4/+41kids (america and elsewhere) hate reading books because they're forced to read ***** novels they dont like in school the whole time there growing up.
- joshtj, on 02/04/2008, -0/+291984 is pretty common study material for schools, isn't it?
- mikesbaker, on 02/04/2008, -0/+27if you want your kids to love books read to them from birth
- inactive, on 02/04/2008, -1/+22Nah, the reason most kids hate books is that schools haven't taught them how to read properly. If you don't know how to read well, reading is too much work to justify what you get out of it. This article
http://www.scragged.com/articles/government-dont-k ...
explains that socializing children is a lot easier than teaching them, so the concept of a teacher as a social engineer has become popular. Public education is free to customers, required by law, and still loses market share as parents switch to private schools and homeschooling. What's wrong with this picture? - Richandler, on 02/04/2008, -0/+211984 is a great book taught in school. However, its relative significance is never taught. This is very true for all text in school. Kids don't relate to Shakespeare naturally, they need a teacher that can help them with that. Something I know I never had.
- mrASSMAN, on 02/04/2008, -0/+20It's not always that they can't read, but that they're just not used to reading out loud. Sometimes I have difficulty reading out loud because I'm accustomed to reading in my head. Despite this, I score very high on reading comprehension. @@@
- Richandler, on 02/04/2008, -2/+21Yah but you don't have the luxury of reading business reports or scientific data at your own pace in the real world.
The truth is most teacher have no insight into what they are teaching. They just restate what they were told and do nothing to stimulate the kids minds. - xthroughmyeyesx, on 02/04/2008, -1/+18Ehh, too much to read. Anyone got a summary?
- WeirdEdsel, on 02/04/2008, -0/+17True, but I don't see many schools forcing kids to read Harry Potter in day-to-day chapter due dates. Kids are doing it on their own for fun, which is how reading should be.
- londubh, on 02/04/2008, -2/+17Even Bush likes books. "My Pet Goat" helped him through a very troubling period in his life.
- mrASSMAN, on 02/04/2008, -0/+15That's what I was going to say.. kids don't hate books. They just need something that is fun to read and catches their interest. Then as they grow up they'll become accustomed to reading books for leisure.
Harry Potter was incredibly visual. When I read it, it was as if a film was playing in my head. That's why it is so popular. - Spiderbrigade, on 02/04/2008, -0/+14Please note that rigidly-assigned reading is irritating for kids who don't like to read as fast -- but ALSO for kids who read much faster. I was definitely chastised in school for reading "ahead" of the assignment.
On the subject of "good books are boring, we need popular stuff to spark interest:" I'd almost rather a kid not read than consume works like "The Clique" or "Gossip Girls" - masterdigger2, on 02/04/2008, -1/+14The U.S. has the same literacy rate (99%) as Japan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_ ... - spyd3rweb, on 02/04/2008, -0/+13Kids in school are reading books only so they can pass a quiz on it later, wheres the excitement in that. And the questions aren't even stimulating, its just worthless stuff like what did X say to Y in chapter 4 to prove that you read it.
- sholt, on 02/04/2008, -0/+12Ancient classics = death, war, sex, infidelity, political intrigue, defying gods, drinking, more sex, fighting
...seriously, what's not to like? - positron, on 02/04/2008, -0/+12Funny, because boring curriculum is one of the things that _made_ me a reader. Used to tuck a novel in behind my text book and read during class.
- Sethbacca, on 02/04/2008, -0/+12Thats crap, kids don't read because of uninvolved parents. Parents use the ipod and videogames as a substitute babysitter. My daughter has an mp3 player, and wii, etc, ec, she is in kindergarden and reads with the 4th grade class, so whats your take on that? Not that I want to poke holes in your swiss cheese of an argument or anything like that. Stop using technology as a scapegoat and blame the parents. Same thing with videogame/movie violence, blame parents. Our parenting as a nation is to blame for a majority of the ills in this country.
- juicebag, on 02/04/2008, -2/+13Buried for big, stupid generalization in story title.
- maldevivre, on 02/04/2008, -7/+17Letting kids publish their own books - that's a great idea!
- RobotBuddha, on 02/04/2008, -0/+10Your comment about parents rings pretty true with my experience, anecdotal as it is. All the big readers I know grew up in a household where their parents were as well. It doesn't mean the subject matter they read will be of any high quality, but they will at least go out and explore whatever interests they have by reading.
- WhiskeyLemur, on 06/30/2009, -0/+10Granted that - but you can usually tell who's stumbling because they read so quickly that their tongue can't keep up and who's stumbling because they can barely figure out the words.
- cyssero, on 04/18/2009, -1/+11You forgot to close your quotation.
- inactive, on 02/04/2008, -2/+11Just look at all the horrid fanfiction (redundant?) on the Internet...
- REBELinBLUE, on 02/04/2008, -0/+9The article mentions that hardly anyone buys audiobooks for the iPod. I've bought a few, but it is really that surprising when you consider the price of them. Harry potter and the half blood prince (the latest harry potter on iTunes) is ~£45. On audible the "His Dark Materials" triology comes to ~£40. It there any wonder why people aren't buying them.
- zomgflamer, on 02/04/2008, -2/+11ya dood thanX 4 ADD dood. 143 peesssss
- WhiskeyLemur, on 06/30/2009, -0/+9"When I read it, it was as if a film was playing in my head." - That's a hugely important cognitive leap, and one which I suspect separates "bookworms" from non-readers. Every novel I read is a film playing in my head; the symbols on the page have an immediate presence as images in my brain. I would guess that people who don't read habitually haven't trained their brain for this kind of instantaneous intepretation, so the words remain just words, as they do in a technical manual.
This translatory step, incidentally, if why reading is better for mental development than "direct-feed" images such as movies - your brain actually has to interpret and visualize a large amount of data very quickly. You have to project in your head not only the plot, but also the characters and environment, since they're not being constantly directly represented for you.
Sorry for going on about this - it's just something that has fascinated me for a long time ;) - NJank, on 02/04/2008, -0/+8you forgot to subtract all the sales to adults stalking the bookstore in their robe and wizard hat.
- cyssero, on 04/18/2009, -0/+7We had to read 1984, Animal Farm and Brave New World in High School. Three of the best books I've ever read.
- Enfenestrate, on 02/04/2008, -0/+7He didn't forget, he's creating his own language.
- Angostura, on 02/04/2008, -0/+7I'm not suprised to be honest. I loved reading as a kid and still d, when I get time - but have you ever read Shakespeare? He was a playwright, the best, but his texts are not idea for reading. If you want to get a kid interested in Shakespeare Digg ought Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing or some other excellent film adaption, or take them to a Theatre. Do not simply pick out some girl at the back of the class and say "You are going to be reading Lady MacBeth's lines". The horror.
- edstate, on 02/04/2008, -0/+7When I was young, and begged to stay up late, my Mom used to say "sure... if you read." And my desire to stay up late turned me into a rabid reader. Although, she was pretty sneaky, too, because reading late at night makes you tires (me, anyway) and I would always fall asleep before I planned to!
- WarrenWhitlock, on 02/04/2008, -3/+10I recomend this to authors wanting to sell books
- WhiskeyLemur, on 06/30/2009, -0/+7I got in trouble in physics class for reading (wait for it) Heinlein. 2x trouble because I got the answers right when called on anyway ;)
- ventralnet, on 02/04/2008, -4/+10Kids hate books because all the assigned reading that i remember in middle school and high school were from ancient classics that spark no interest to youth today. More modern works would be much more appropriate to spark interest
- PopePhred, on 02/04/2008, -1/+7I think it's kind of ironic that someone who is a fan of Carl Sagan is looking for an "amen."
- Angostura, on 02/04/2008, -0/+6Because not all books are *simply* entertainment? The nice thing about books as opposed to film, for example - there is enough time to weave in analogies and different levels of meaning. There is nothing wrong with reading books just for the surface fun, but that doesn't mean that nothing else is going on there.
- jeffsback2223, on 02/04/2008, -0/+6I agree. I found that I was reading the same literature during the same grade level as my parents: The outsiders, Animal Farm, Beowulf. there's more to life than reading the same books generation after generation.
- MaxPayne3476, on 02/04/2008, -1/+7Absolutely! Kids hating books? Hell, I went to B&N on the last Harry Potter night (... I wasn't even buying the book lol) and it was JAM PACKED w/ kids waiting for this book! It wasn't even like it would sell out, they just wanted that book THAT night! How bout Lord of the Rings? Holes?
And you can't say kids are really rading less now a days. How about Facebook, Myspace, and other blogs? I know most of you grammar nazis are gonna jumps out and go "OH that's not reading - that's retardation, but it's teens communicating through writing and inventing their own language! At the core, this digital revolution has created something much larger. - braddial, on 02/04/2008, -0/+6It doesn't matter if it's a "modern work" or a classic, children should get to read the books that interest them. I never had a problem reading the assigned books (the classics) in middle school even though I usually found them very boring. My brother on the other hand was turned off reading completely because he was never given the chance to read anything that interested him. This lack of interest in reading is still with him at the age of 24. Give the students a choice and they'll find that there are actually books out there they will enjoy reading.
- topace3000, on 02/04/2008, -0/+6The schools in affluent area in America are much better. Also, private schools. Anyway, you're basing your assumptions on some ***** international school. Trust me, there are quality schools and plenty of people getting quality education in the US.
- topace3000, on 02/04/2008, -0/+6I'm beginning to think my public school education was far better than most other people's in the US.
- Screwy1138, on 02/04/2008, -1/+7Eh - my 16 month old hasn't watched a TV show yet. It's not good for her and we don't want to encourage it. We've never sat her in front of the TV, and she doesn't watch shows with us. Without that brain-drain, she gets read to anywhere from 20 to 40 times a day - at her request. She also sits and thumbs through books on her own. I believe kids reading books at school ages comes directly from their young life, and I think too many babies/toddlers are being sat in front of the babysitter TV.
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