While reading "One in Four read No Books Last Year", by Alan Fram, I was shocked to learn how much the reading in this country is declining. I have always thought that reading a book was almost like escaping from a bad day I've had or expanding my imagination. It saddens me to see that with each generation, the intrest in reading seems to gradually decrease. I would think that parents would want to incourage their children to read more because it would enhance their reading skills inside and outside the classroom.
Fram's article also shows that women are more open to different categories than men are. "More women than men read every major category of books except for history and biography. Industry experts said that confirms their observation that men tend to prefer nonfiction". After this quote in the article there is a man who responds to being less interested in nonfiction and reading for that matter. He simply states that non fiction doesn't interest him, and if he is interested in a story, he'll go see a movie.
There are a lot of books being made into movies these days and I think that by making the movie it is taking the visuals that one gets when reading; you develope images in your head as to what everything looks like...it's the easy way out. I don't mind seeing a movie after I have read the book, but if I see the movie first I would think it would ruin the book for me.
I think schools and even parents need to keep enforcing the fact that the more you read, the more it will help in school and outside of school. If a child chooses to continue on to higher education, the reading isn't going to stop anytime soon. Why not keep the reading there and as it increasingly becomes more difficult, they won't be overwhelmed.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Alan Fram's article "One in Four Read No Books Last Year" is extremely helpful because it gives facts and figures to the general acknowledgment that people are not as interested in reading anymore. I also agree that film, video games, and internet has replaced the genre of reading somewhat. While this shift could be for a number of reasons, the primary ones include ease, instant gratification, social interaction, and time.
All four of these are of particular significance because people tend to develop their love of reading when they are young. Fram states "The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year--half read more and half read fewer". However, I'm sure the average movies watched per year exceeds four and rarely falls below. As Abby indicated, movies are visual literature that provide instant gratification. People can watch films in social groups within a short amount of time and have a solid knowledge of what the film was about, its setting, its characters, its plot, etc.
As an English teacher, I am unsure of how to encourage personal reading. To be sure I have numerous reading challenges, activities, and summer reading lists I plan on using, yet (and yes, I am making excuses for the students) students are required to read a minimum of 25 books per school year (a 9 month period), go to school full time (8 hours a day, not including extracurriculars), do homework, socially interact with family, friends, religious groups, etc., in some cases work, and still have time to read for enjoyment on a regular basis. Instead of blaming the students or parents for the lack of interest in reading, as teachers, we should teach by example and encourage students to think of reading as fun and fulfilling. We are in a "nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous" and as a response we should do all we can to reverse this, rather than rely on or expect others to enact the change for us.
I think that reading is the best thing anyone can give themselves. Reading help you to escape from the real world. It gives u a place to go to when you dont feel like being bothered with real people. I feel that it is really bad that reading is declining among children. Not only should reading be fun but it is something that you need to learn to love especially if you are going on to get a higher education.
Abby brings up all of these great points about why children should be reading more and i agree with her. I think that children should read more and parents should make there children read more. When i was young i loved to read and i could do it all the time. I got in trouble for reading after my bed time when i was growing up, so to here that children are not reading is just not good. I think movies are good too, but if it is a movie to a book the book should be read first or else it spoils the whole thing. I hope parents and teachers can get these children back into reading more, and learning to love to read.
Post a Comment