Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The Core of Our Problem

Americans are reading less and less. This article reports that only 43% of the population said they read a book last year (which surely means the percentage is much lower).

I watched my 13 year old nephew play with his psp the last time I saw him, I realized that he will probably be one of the non-reading majority. When I was his age, when I was hiding from relatives, I would be hidden away reading a book. He has too many other better things to do.

If he is not reading now for pleasure, will he when he is an adult? Will he when he is in college? It seems unlikely.

How many times has it become apparent that your students won't read the most interesting texts you can pick out for them? Even those that do, evince weak comprehension.

We need to break this cycle, but what can we do?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good question. It seems that most of the people who consider it a problem have already broken the cycle for themselves and their children.

Convincing the others of the problem is likely to be the real difficulty.