Idea that "Kids Don't Read" a myth?

[Chris]

That's pretty cool, blackrose....i read in spells during the high school/college years, but i remember how easy it was for other distractions to take all my time....I did get thru Dune one year though...

As far as Dickens, he can be difficult. Lots of old English that I can pronounce, but what the heck does it mean? I did like Tale of Two Cities, once I got into it (for English class), but then tried Great Expectations and was totally lost and gave it up....movie was easier to follow, at that point..plus it had Gwenyth Paltrow....

[Amy]

I think my school introduced Dickens too early. We read Great Expectations my freshman year and I hated it at the time. Later in college, I read Bleak House and loved it. And I'm a huge reader.

[Chris]

I like Dickens stories, I just have a hard time understanding his English. UK English is hard for me to get sometimes even if written today, and he was writing over 100 years ago...so the language barrier is an issue.....which is why I like the movies of his stories, as I can see what is going on....

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I keep debating about trying Dickens again... specifically The Mystery of Edwin Drood and partially because Drood A Novel caught my eye...

Maybe I'll read Drood: a Novel first and, if I like it, go back and read Dickens. That's what I did for The Poe Shadow A Novel. (I'd read a lot of Poe's poetry, but very few of his stories before I read The Poe Shadow - which is not fantasy, but an excellent story... )

[Bronwyn]

My mom started me (and my sister) on reading. My dad has never read much aside from the newspaper, but seeing him read that still helped. My mom would take us to the kids reading circles at the library. She signed us up for the summer reading programs at the library; incentives of candy, small toys, and if you filled up your whole board (it was sort of like bingo or tic-tac-toe but with author last names or genres of books) you got a free book. I loved it.

In elementary school we also did Book-It, where if you filled up the whole thing you got a free pan pizza at Pizza Hut. Then in middle school we did Battle of the Books. It was a fun group reading thing, the only downside being that you had to remember so much detail if you wanted to win anything.

Mainly when I was little I liked reading about dinosaurs and animals. Then I moved to the Baby-sitters club little sister books and then baby-sitters club itself. I also read a lot of American Girl books which got me into history and into reading Ann Rinaldi.

I can't say I ever had a specific teacher that helped me love reading. I already loved it by the point there were encouraging teachers. I had ones that sparked further my love of history, but not the same.

I will say that required reading made me hate a lot of books. I hated The Merchant of Venice for years, I hated Dickens because we were forced to read A Tale of Two Cities. Now I'm reading Bleak House and loving it, and I love Shakespeare, but it's taken me a long time to get over the hate.

I think it was A.L. that mentioned the interpretations being different from the teachers and failing because of it. I had a teacher like that in 11th grade english. She wanted us to learn to interpret for ourselves and wanted to hear what we thought, but if we had a different idea than she did it was wrong. It made me so upset and I nearly switched teachers because of it.

Now you won't find me without a book (unless I'm knitting or otherwise occupied). I'm currently reading three. And I will admit that I hide when work is slow and pull out a book and read. I'm the kid that was always by herself in the corner reading. I still take books to family functions, though now that I'm older it's a little inappropriate to read like I used to. But I still bring a book. It's almost like a safety blanket.

I don't know much about how kids today are reading because I'm not old enough to have kids (or at least reading aged kids) and I don't know any otherwise. Well, a second cousin of mine is 13 and she just devours Twilight, but I don't know about her reading in general...

That was much longer than I planned. I apologize.

[Mohammed]

I like Dickens too my only problem with the classics we read in school it was too much Jane Austen too little of the real masters like Edgar Allan Poe.

Austen is some old version of chick lit to me. Doesnt deserve her status.

[pete]

well,

i started out at an early age reading some lit books but almost exclusively ones that seemed adventuresome such as stevenson (kidnapped, treasure island, etc.), poe, dumas, etc. then i got into sci-fi and fantasy afterwhich i gradually got into historical fiction. my point is that i never really got into a lot of the other classics and it was much later before i ever read anything by dickens or some of the other more 'human interest' type stories.

i have never had a classical education. here's another point...when young i was restricted from a lot of reading matter by my fundamentally christian parents. almost anything that wasn't totally innocuous i had to read on the sly, usually at school. one of the reasons i was such a poor student especially during my middle school years is i spent so much time reading in class.

i would be interested to hear from others if they too were limited in their reading by religeon.

[Robin]

Well my best mate daughter is 10. She is currently reading 5 books (Don't ask me how) and in her spare time writes stories on their PC. So it isn't all doom and gloom.

[Mohammed]

Thats my ideal dream picture of a kid in that age.

Why not let them learn from us things that they might like.

Sadly i grew up in a culture where making your kids want to read books is the last thought in the world.

That you can change about your kids.

[Jim]

Pete, I was on the opposite side of the fence. My great-grandfather was a minister who instilled a hatred of religion in my grandfather. My grandfather was very well read & owned/operated a newspaper. If you ever wanted to know a foible of a religion, he was the man to see. He was especially adept at making fun of the Christian religion. It's taken me years to even be able to read anything slightly religious without immediately dismissing it.

[pete]

hi jim,

that's an interesting story. i was trained to be a minister all my growing years. later when i gave it up i gradually developed an 'attitude' towards organised religeon in general. i truly feel that reading restrictions put on people by a religeon are a control technique. i think they are afraid if you read too much you might learn learn too much; you might discover how controlling they are.

so stories that have a lot of religeous content have a tendency to bother me as well. a good example of this are the 'camber' stories by catherine kurtz. they're well written but thinly veiled catholicism.

[Jim]

I remember Kurtz's 'Camber' stories & read a couple many years ago when I first saw them, but couldn't get into them for the same reason. I think it's one of the reasons I've never been able to finish "A Canticle for Leobowitz" either.

I don't find blind faith a compelling reason to do anything. When any story uses that as a hook, I tend to drop by the wayside. I get a bad attitude about the character & I shouldn't. We all have faith-based beliefs that make no more or less sense whether they're religious or not, but add a drop of religion & I tend to shut down.

It's gotten better over the years since I've recognized it. I don't have nearly as much trouble when it is that kind of attitude & can contain it to some extent.

[Jon]

pete wrote: "so stories that have a lot of religeous content have a tendency to bother me as well. a good example of this are the 'camber' stories by catherine kurtz. they're well written but thinly veiled catholicism."

I've read many of Kurtz's Deryni books and take them with a grain of salt. I asked her once, in a letter, why the Pope never appeared in her series. She responded that the church in the Deryni world is based on the Anglican church, where the monarch is head of the church, defender of the faith, etc. etc.

I read Kurtz's stories more as alternate historical fiction than fantasy. The "magic" in them is more like psi powers than true magic. She even goes so far as to explain the genetics behind the gift in her appendices.

I don't remember that blind faith was much of a plot factor in Kurtz's work, but I could be misremembering. Since the work is roughly analogous to the 11th-13th centuries, the world is rife with hypocrisies, political intrigue, power struggles between church and state, race prejudices and discrimination (similar to the Inquisition) and all the elements that make for a melodramatic medieval tale.

I actually like to read novels that touch on religion and faith, even those very far from my own beliefs. As an example, I recently read Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. I struggled with some of the mythology only because I'm unfamiliar with the mythology and theology of Hinduism. It was still a good read and very thought provoking.

[pete]

hi jim and jon,
thankyou for your interesting thoughts. jim, i've actually tried to get over some of my distaste for religeous cant. i've gone through a few phases...when younger i was taught that all the organised religeons not my own were evil organisations trying to keep people under their thumbs. later i realised the relifeon i had been taught was just as bad. that made me resent all organised religeon. it's the organised part i still resent tho i respect an individual's faith. i do think it misplaced but don't feel a need to criticise the faith provided...and here's the big kicker, they don't persecute someone else for having a different faith. but there lies the rub; all thru history and into the modern day the lack of tolerance for differing faiths has so often been the source of so much evil. organised religeon and religeous intolerance has always been a terrible destructive force. so dammit...live and let live!

jon, now that you mention it i do recall having enjoyed so many plot elements in the camber stories...i read three of them, if i recall. it was only the strong ties to the church that bothered me a bit. it wasnt enough to spoil my enjoyment of the books tho. interesting about the fact that it was based on the anglican church not catholicism. i've read more about catholicism than anglican but it's probably not surprising how similar they are. historically, it was pretty much only the issue of the pope in rome trying to control everything that caused ol' henry the 8th to break from the church in rome. again it was a control issue but on a big scale. i know it was more complicated than that and had been a long time coming. the western world going thru the protestant phases did involve some doctrinal differences but it seems like catholicism, anglican and episcopalian beliefs have strong similarities.

[Marc]

My objection to religion in most books is that it is usually portrayed as power-hungry old men trying to extend and maintain their power, often at the expense of a persecuted minority such as wizards. (Which seems odd to me, given that wizards power is clearly evident, while priest's power is mostly verbiage.) There are some books that I very much enjoy, in part because of the strong positive relationship between the priest and the wizard, in defiance of both Church and School. Try any book by C. Dale Brittain, but especially her Yurt series. My own books are more about gods than religion, but one of the points I'll be getting into more and more is what gods think about Man's religions, as the series progresses.

[pete]

hi all,

you know i'm sure their are truly good people who only have the interests of others in their hearts. i admire this sort but wonder if they might be in the minority. i've met many well meaning church leaders who might think they are doing good work but are actually trying to control their flock. and that's actually a concept taken straight from the bible...shepherds leading the sheep. it wants to make you proud for closely following the flock in all things. the leaders are told what to tell the flock by their leaders. and the people at the top of the heap have this power over all the ones below them.

so it's the organised religeous thing that sticks in my craw. thats what leads to the intolerance and bad blood.

[Marc]

pete wrote: "so it's the organised religeous thing that sticks in my craw"

As far as I can tell, it's 'organized anything.' Once you start organizing you start imposing a 'right' way, the organized way, and a 'wrong' way, which is everything else. Revisions of the organization can be costly, and the people who benefit by the current organization will try to prevent them, or make them in such a way as maintains their current privileges. That's one of the reasons why bureaucracies should be very hard to create and easy to change/remove.

[pete]

As far as I can tell, it's 'organized anything.' Once you start organizing you start imposing a 'right' way, the organ..."


word up...!

[Heather]

Laurel wrote: "Hello all,

I'm a science teacher, but once taught high school English, and have a soft spot for students who read. I've gained a bit of a reputation for it, and consequently, a number of kids w..."

Hi, I'm pretty much a n00b here, but I thought I would chime in. I think kids are reading more than most people think. I also think more kids would read if the adults around them (some adults, not all) didn't denigrate some of the things they like to read. My eldest read and reread Calvin and Hobbes, Foxtrot and Garfield and almost nothing else until pretty recently. (he is 15) He was reading, a LOT, but not something a lot of people respected. I encouraged him, I bought him the books he liked and continued to read aloud to him things like; Harry Potter, Dragon Lance, My Side of the Mountain. Eventually he latched on to the Ranger series and is now a regular reader. I won't say avid. :)

I also think if books and reading are valued in the home it will rub off on kids. If mom and dad read for pleasure and occasionaly share amusing or interesting bits with each other and kids, if kids see parents using reference books, cookbooks, reading the paper etc. I think they absorb the idea that books are fun, useful and interesting. I also think that those schoolastic bookclubs are a good idea. I let my kids pick out books and then there is that excitement when they get them and they want to read them right away. ^_^ I don't care if it is a spongebob picture book, its a book!

My kids are all boys. I have heard that boys tend to read less than girls, not sure if that is true. But my kids enjoy reading or love being read to. My 12 year old reads books based on his favorite video game but they are chapter books of reasonable reading level, I can't fault him. ;)

[Arthur]

I work in college for almost 3 years.
I think I have seen what..? 5 students with fiction books?
On the other hand, almost every student has a mobile phone they listen music on. Without earphones. Many of them have portable playstations they play during breaks. But as I say, max 5 students had fiction books during breaks and I think I am being generous, more likely only 3-4.

When I bought ebook reader, I have spoken to some of them, because they were curious what this new gadget is. When they learned it is a dedicated ebook reader they would loose their interest immediately (not knowing the price), because when I tried to figure out what they like to read, I learned that they don't read fiction.

As some people said here it depends a lot on parents. If a child has been brought up in a family that respect and exercise reading, have a few book shelves full of old and new books, most certainly kids are going to read too and vice versa.

Before we immigrated to Israel, we had about 4.000 books in our flat. One room was dedicated to books only. 5 big bookshelves with books in 2 rows and 10 bookshelves hunging on walls. We were allowed to take 1.000 kg with us in a big container, half of it, was filled in with books, about 800.

As a result, I am an avid reader.


However....my older brother(later forties) was even a bigger book lover but his life was very difficult (careerwise), so he never reads anymore, only medical books because it takes up all his spare time. He is a lot smarter than me. He liked most of Russian classics he read in school and don't understand why I hate all of them and read fantasy only.

It seems like reading becomes sort of luxury in our busy busy world nowdays for adults and kids tend to play computer games and watch TV.