While in the midst of my chemistry class today I had ran into an interesting situation, upon a random discussion the Professor asked the class (of 100+ students) how many students read more then about 100 books a year, and to her surprise (or not, probably not) only a few of the students in the class raised their hands, many more responding when she then asked how many students read less then 10 books a year. In her disappointment she brought up something I'm sure we're all familiar with, reading logs. If we had been forced to develop these habits in school, then why did they not carry on when the assignment was no longer issued? And really the answer seems ever so clear: -By forcing kids to read at a fairly young age and heavily documenting and complicating the process with logs and questions school kills the fun of reading for most students. Reading should be something done for enjoyment and self fulfillment, so why make it up to be a task, and more-so work. If there's anything that a student would like to avoid it's work, hence why the idea of extra credit even works in the first place. By introducing students to the concept of leisurely reading by turning it into a graded, forced assignment the idea of reading books specifically is early on enforced not as something to do for one's enjoyment, but as work, something that you do because you have to. In today's text assault world where one is exposed to information at all times, be it TV, radio or internet, old methods of breeding a love of reading in children such as reading logs simply will not work. C At this point it's honestly surprising that many avid readers find it surprising that more people don't read frequently. Contrary to popular belief people are reading, probably more then ever in history, just not directly out of books. While the quality of all the text may not be held to the same level as a book, the quantity more then makes up for that when it comes to how much mental stimulation one is getting out of the act. The internet is a huge information database, more knowledge is readily available to the average person then ever before in history - so why then, are we still judging mental activity on a basis as simple as how many books one reads?
Thank you, for typing this. Agreeing with someone as much as I am on this occasion, being bowled over by the similarity of thought between us, is quite the rarity. I completely understand and I have experienced the "task" of reading that school and higher education inflicts upon it's students. It obsurd but, to put into consideration, there are those who struggle to grasp reading from an early age through to maybe later on in their lives. So maybe not a log would be appropriate for those with difficulties, but a helping hand. Reading, for me, has never been a hobby of mine, in fact, I literally never read novels unless I choose to and to be honest, reading logs made it a compulsory task, and I would be penalised for taking my time with it. Although, I have always loved to sit down with a 1000+ page book about Space or The Earth, non-fiction has never left my shelves. I guess it's the thrill of learning something new.
Look at my title. Now back at this post. Now back at my title. Now back at my post. Sadly, this post is not my title, and if it was, I would buy a Rainbow Dash shaped nuke, eat it, turn into Mr Fantastic, stretch all the way to Derpy's house, and punch him for doing that. However, that is besides the point. I read. You were saying? Post Scriptum: I don't read all that much, since we get little to no submissions. So get crackin' and write me some fanfics!
I never thought about it, but, yeah, you might just have a point. I love to read, and am normally one of those 100+ books a year reader, although this year I haven't seem to have the time. I know EveryPony ate my summer . . . Any ways, I think you have a point. Although, how you're going to find out if the person actually read the book without questions of some sort, I don't know. I do remember one book I read for class, and the teacher wanted a essay on a certain point of the book, but I didn't think the point was very important, so wrote - nothing. The teacher was puzzled - he knew I read the book, we talked about it and its sequels - and was puzzled I didn't get what he thought was an important point. Years later, I can see he was right, it was an important point, but I just didn't "get it" at that age. DanSze - Alright, alright! Sorry, I'm trying!
It is public schooling in general that kills people's interest in learning. All young children love learning new things, but after a few years of mind-numbingly stupid school work, most would rather tune out with video games or television. Every once in awhile you have a trend like Harry Potter or something that the masses will read, but the substance is something of the calibre of calling ketchup a vegetable. Sometimes I run into someone who fancies themselves a "reader" and then I soon learn that their last string of books can be summed up by "James Patterson + Cliche Fantasy". It is extremely rare that I find anyone who reads things which are more intellectually stimulating.
This message emanates temporal energies: Perhaps I'm just odd, but I enjoy the way we're schooled. Or perhaps it's the Canadian schooling system. I mean, I genuinely love to read, whether it be assigned or personal; but that doesn't stop there. I completed half my Physics Textbook a couple weeks back. Why? Because I was bored. I love a challenge. But I also love many of the things we do in school, even as far as assigned and graded reading; the reading is quite good though - Brave New World and 1984 are two of the books we had to read for English this year. However, using me as a bench mark is a terrible idea. A while back (A month~ish ago), I used the fanfic reading list - after a while, it got too tedious with updating the thing - but before I stopped, it was past the 300 fanfics read point. (I had far too much spare time over the summer). Therefore, my opinions on this particular topic do not overlap with those afore stated by you. I personally enjoy reading, for what ever reason I may be doing it; partially because, I do not read based on content or subject matter, I read based on: Is this worth thing worth my time?, so, I am quite content with where we stand. I can't though speak for others for a good number of reasons. First off, I have no authority over the decisions and opinions of others, but secondly, I live in Canada; Toronto specifically, and while the TDSBs computers leave much to be desired, our teachers - my school's at least - are quite good at what they teach (For the most part). So, not all is as grim as you said, at least not for me. I enjoy a good book, and try to distance myself from the television - with the exception of the occasional episode of Doctor Who.
I can support most of what has been said above. Maybe not the parts that require me too read minds. As I said before, I can not yet do that. Yet.
This message emanates temporal energies: Ahh, but with temporal manipulation, I can do seemingly the equivalent. Unless in the future you lied. Then we he a problem. Or rather, a "Calibration error".
This message emanates temporal energies: And then you die of all of the cancer and radiation poisoning? This is terribly relevant to the thread.
No, I don't die, because troll doves. Archimedes is best dove troll, no? And this is highly relevant, since I have read all of the material on successful time travel.
This message emanates temporal energies: And then the alfalfa monster came and ate you. The end. And now back to our regularly scheduled thread topic.
i really don't know about any other ponies, but my school has maybe one of the best teaching systems i know. it is soo fun and reading is practically a sport. the school doesn't have the teachers that talk in monotone and point at a chalk board, our teachers actually make it interactive. we even have field trips and group projects along with videos and games. so to me, school is fun. i have no issue with schools killing reading, i don't do alot of reading but i find reading fun to do once in a while. our school has the summer reading project and the top 15 books which make it easy to find books to read. Our English classes don't really force us to read books, other than 2 of the 5 cook county educational board Required books. We usually find assignments to do and look them up, so we learn something we are interested in yet makes it fun to read. i am doing an assignment on cinema and i have to read a 40 page booklet on the subject. sorry for rambling on everypony, just had to say that. while on the topic of education: i do believe that schools should work on writing a bit better. i have seen a buck load of students with such horrible grammar skills.(i don't care on forums, but in papers it gets me a bit angry) i have seen alot of students write papers in text format. like the "lol" or "omg" type of text. i don't know about anybody else, but thats just me.
This really isn't anything new by any standards. I picked up on this way back when I listened to The Wall in it's entirety years back. Yes kids, Pink Floyd can teach you valuable life lessons. The system is setup to institute a conformist mindset into kids whether they meant for it to or not. Creativity is often punished if not performed in the right outlet IE various art classes be it music, art itself, cooking or really anything not considered "required skills". What's more, here in the US, arts are often cut when the budget needs lightening in the education department. Personally, as much as I hate modern art not in the form of media, it's still something the system needs to nourish for kids. A culture without art cannot and will not last. As for the comment in the original post about books, I completely agree. I never read the boring books in school I was supposed to and my grades suffered harshly for it. I love reading and always have if it was of my own accord. In sixth grade, it would piss my english teacher off so much when I would pull out a Lovecraft novel and not the book she assigned to us for class. It wasn't until high school that we got to ready anything decent and I'm actually thankful we had an edgy curriculum in my last years of grade school. I fished grade school with a 2.1 GPA. No where NEAR great but I'm glad I didn't sacrifice anything just to appease socity. That aside though, in closing, the system is broken and flawed folks. It's there to put you on a track and keep you there. It probably wasn't designed with that particular ideal in mind but it's what it turned into more or less.
This is very interesting, and I must say I agree. Now, this was where you lost me a bit. Just because you don't find something intellectually stimulating doesn't mean other people can't. Admittedly, I've never read any of Patterson's works, but perhaps somepony on here has. Please try not to be so condescending. Even so, I appreciate your opinion.
...hmm, I can't say that modern education kills off the joy of reading... But I can't say completely otherwise either. Personally, I probably read around 30+ large books a year currently, but that's because I can't find the time to... ...I blame homework, probably. For me, my favorite books tend to be history textbooks, fantasy novels and the sort... but the idea of having to read, then pretty much "dismantle" and interpret the story/history, added with homework, etc... is annoying to say the least. ...but then again, I'm also a bit lazy... ...the interpretion part is the dumbest part of english classes though; you have to see things exactly as the teacher does to get things right... and it's my opinion that most teachers seem to read way too much into the smallest details. D: ....then again, I don't think I have too much to complain about now that I think about it; eventually I read any books assigned, usually before they get assigned much as homework. :derpe:
I cannot learn if I cannot find a purpose or practical use for the knowledge, either at the beginning or the end of it. That's probably why I failed Algebra 2. There was a lot of BS that cluttered the learning.
The only time I've ever read a full book, was during my 8,9 and 10th years at school during them "take it in turns reading chapters" things , and then it was boring beyond compare. I do truly believe that my early years/high school ruined the "joy" of reading for me. Probably the longest thing I've read on my own accord was a Ka-50 manual and that at times was boring me. Sorry if anything is un-readable, wrote this on bus. :/
