Let Kids Decide! (A literate generation?)

Member Name: Alindrail

Product:	A literate generation?
Date:	07/05/01 (11 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Something to do when bored

Disadvantages: Expensive habit.

I think one of the major reasons why children today don't read is simply because of school. Initially most children DO read. The simple children's books are their world, how they learn about it, gain ideas, and become interested in various things - learn morals and ideas.

Then they go to school. Initially the books are fun, but somewhere on the road they become dull. Tgis is usually when they are assigned books that no longer have pictures, and are compulsory.

This too is a necessary part of education. A moment when a serious approach to education and learning must be implemented. Sadly it is not in most people's characters to do their work, they do it because they have to. School is crucial in installing this basic premise. So these assigned books are necessary.

What I object to is the nature of the books assigned. Very often they are what are deemed 'classics'. This is faintly ridiculous, because of the mere fact that most of them are, to put it bluntly, boring and plodding, out of touch with people's lives today. Yes, they are excellent books! And yes, some children do appreciate them, but very often a more mature mind is able to pick up on their brillinace, not a child who desires action and adventure. The point is appreciation is not innate, it is a process of evolution through greater reading. You need to give the passion before the appreciation.

The best way to do this is to give a much broader base from which children can pick. Try different genres, different styles, even different eras, in the hope that something will hook. Personally I read as a child... my interest waned, and then one little story in one anthology about dragons got me hooked into fantasy, then science fiction, and then on to other books once I had exhausted a large portion of the genre. What got me reading other books was the appreciation and admirtation for those workd and authors within the books I was reading. Then you can a
ppreciate fine literature.

Is that a good thing? Yes, I think it is. Reading makes you think, and question, and I believe makes you a fundamentally better person with a broader appreciation of how people feel. You can never 'know' a person, but what someone writes, I feel, rather than their eyes, is the window to their soul. To appreciate others, you must understand what they are trying to communicate through the most intimate way, and in some respects, the most honest war, the written word.

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