A decline in reading books for fun is leading to lower test scores for middle and high school kids, according to a new study by the National Endowment for the Arts.
NEA Chairman Dana Gioia blamed electronic diversions for part of the decline, but also pointed to media culture: “We live in a society where the media does not recognize, celebrate or discuss reading, literature and authors.â€
Well, J.K. Rowling aside, that’s probably correct.
Critics said the report overstated what is actually a modest decline in scores. Nor does the study count other reading that kids do, such as on the Internet. Still, it’s important for parents and schools to realize the threat to reading skills posed by our loud, media-distracted culture.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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24 Comments
What was this topic about? I skimmed over it and couldn’t remember it.
We still read to the grandkids. I think that is important for many reasons.
If we are going to live by the sword of standardized tests, then we’ll darn sure die from it as well (see, e.g., NCLB). The only way I know to do well on the various ones, especially the “college entrance exams” (SAT-I, ACT) is for the student taking the same to have been a reader. Yes, I know all about the “test prep” industry, etc., but in my opinion, if a student is not/has not been a reader, the student will not do as well as s/he could had that person been a reader.
Vaughn,
I think there is a lack of accurate aptitude measurement.
I remember “reading” (no pokes intended) an article about a furniture carpenter that was an absolute genius when it came to making furniture. A client came by while he was gone and dropped a blueprint with written instructions how he wanted the cabinet designed.
When the client came back, he found the carpenter had almost finished the piece, but the only page from the envelope that was smudged with dirt and varnish was the one that had been drawn out.
It turns out that the carpenter could not read beyond the first grade level, so the instructions about texture, type of wood and color were not adhered to.
Nevertheless, the client was still pleased and astounded how accurate the piece was in terms of structure.
I’ve meant some absolute Literary genius in my lifetime where these ravenous readers would consume several books a day. They could talk about history, classic literature and philosophy in great detail because they remembered whatever they read and could translate it to the real world.
However, the same people when stuck along the side of the road, didn’t have enough “sense” to know how to pull a spare from the trunk of their car to change the flat tire.
I’m a page reader myself as I find myself impatient reading word for word. That is, I see a page in a book and absorb what is there and it imprints on my brain like a photograph. I’ve always been that way since very young.
However, as I get older I find that reading person to person dialogue became increasingly difficult. Perhaps this was from poor reading proficiency.
I guess that’s why I never became an attorney as I hate poring over text that is intimate with detail and superfluous terms. :)
I can still tell you what was on the pages of my freshman biology back in junior high (they called it that instead of middle school.)
However, if I read something like an IRS or a legal document when lots of legalese, I become cross-eyed and lose all focus.
I suppose that’s why I like the Internet so much as it provides page size “snap shots” that I can absorb rapidly.
Just don’t ask me to do your taxes. :)
They don’t teach reading in school, they teach studying. Studying is looking at pictures, reading the excerpts in the margins, etc…
There is no more teaching to teach, they are teaching to the test. Its time for schools to change and until the morons that are on the state school board stop bickering about fact vs fiction (evolution vs creationism) and realize that kids are being taught as if they were still living in the 80’s, not the 21st century!
Tony – I wish we would go back to teaching like we did in the 50s-60s. Reading, comprehension, writing, arguing, etc. All very important.
kansas – the trick in reading legalese (and IRSese): Always read the parentheses and semi-colons before reading the words!
Kids should be taught how to think not what to think.
But the CONS want education to be an ideologically-enforced brainwashing.
Part of the problem is those of us who don’t have kids in the school system anymore simply sit back and pay our taxes. And there’s a strong movement from “CONservatives” that make what seems on the surface to be a legitimate argument, “They’re our kids, teach what we want.”
Sorry, parents. It’s much more important that kids learn how to think than to be indoctrinated into what you think. Or what you think you think.
Half the parents in the world are worse than average. Sorry, but I expect the community to try to come forth and attempt to help the children of less-than-average parents rise above their parentage.
I do not have kids in school, but I am helping pay the bills and I have a voice. I want future employees to be able to think. I don’t want future doctors to think “Intelligent” Design is science. If you want my tax dollars to contribute to your kids’ education, I insist on a voice into how they’re educated.
MH – it’s both sides at fault. It is so much easier to grade multiple-guess and coin-flip than it is to do discussion. Also, I fine teachers are afraid of controversy which will be the logical outcome of thinking. Sad thing is, I even see it at the University level. Students are afraid to say “I disagree”
Yeah, “Ben” –
If people would only get the message from Socrates — question everything — rather than obsess on how he was murdered by the State.
It’s so easy to call upon the oppresion of the majority on the minority to make people think they are “right,” simply because they have the numbers.
But the CONS want education to be an ideologically-enforced brainwashing.
-Monkey
Is that what you call the people who say that evolution is proven observable fact but can not provide facts that prove evolution?I wouldn’t want my tax dollars to support that faith based ideology either.
So Moneyhawk, you want our kids to think, however you don’t want to each intelligent design. You only want evolution taught. So how does this teach them to think? It would seem best would to teach both and allow the student to think. Study ideas for and against both theories and just maybe it would be a step that would encourage the student to think, which should be the goal.
All of the creation stories should be taught. They provide real lessons in the manners in which different societies have tried to explain man’s place in the universe.
“DWD” –
I have no problem with teaching “intelligent” design.
I have a problem with it being taught as science.
It’s fine for kids to be taught that the Greek God Atlas holds planet Earth on his shoulders. Go ahead and teach the myth of the giant turtle holding the planet on its shell. Tell kids some people believe in Bonzo the Sun God, for all I care. But don’t call your theological legends *science.*
Ah, yes you want the kids to think, as long as they think like you.
Nope, “DWD” –
I want them to think.
I want them to think like scientists when the subject is science.
I want kids to think like philosophers when the subject is philosophy.
I expect them to think like theologists when the subject is theology.
I want them to think like mathematicians when the subject is math.
I object to teaching kids to think like religionists when the subject is biology.
You got a problem with that?
Wow. from the decline of reading, to the evolution/creation debate. No wonder nothing gets done.
What they fail to mention is how competive the publishing industry is. A lot of talented writers get buried beneath the top soil of money hungry sharks swarming. The most successful writers are usually the ones with money on their minds. Some writers just use a formulated plot that they just plug the variables into, usually a skeletal structure of someone elses previous successful book.
Then again as this article mentioned, reading has kind of been pushed back in our culture, you don’t see many writers rubbing elbows with celebrities like you used to with Ernest Hemingway, or F. Scott Fitzgerald, we don’t really hold them in high esteem like we used to.
Yea, anyway with the kids declining test scores in reading, well its really small so I don’t see it too much of a problem, except for the fact that reading proficently is the foundation to all other school subjects as well.
WhiteElephant,
How many writers and published authors do you know personally?
I want them to think like mathematicians when the subject is math.
I object to teaching kids to think like religionists when the subject is biology.
You got a problem with that?
Posted by: MonkeyHawk | November 20, 2007 at 05:05 PM
What about if they’re studying scatology?
It is obvious that J R is surviving without an in depth ability to read or write.
Was he the child left behind?
Yeah just tell me what you’re wearing pat.
YOU know,since I didn’t even post this thread til your flirt?
Too many folks rely upon the idjiated public schools to teach their children. Why not step up and teach your own kids? My kids read everyday just like I did and still do. I have two books going at any given time and that’s the way I would hope my kids would be as well. If people would turn off the damned teevee and talk with one another once in a while, we all might be able to communicate instead of grunting at each other. But nooo, CSI is on next and you say this to your kid, “Shhh, be quiet and go play your XBox”. You could have at least told them to go outside and play (to get rid of the extra fifty pounds of flab on the little second grader).
Kans,”What about if they’re studying scatology?”
Then they should be encouraged to think like Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.