Comments on: Why kids don’t like to read

By: Is online reading to blame for people reading less books? » Make You Go Hmm

Is online reading to blame for people reading less books? » Make You Go Hmm — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:24:29 +0000

[…] this year I pondered why our kids don’t read and this morning I’m reading the CNN article with a study that found 1 in 4 people […]

By: darkmoon

darkmoon — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 16:51:21 +0000

Some people don’t watch TV that much. My household growing up was much worse, so that comment by Ashley sounds pretty dang privileged.. naye.. spoiled to me. While parenting is guidance, not forcing, too many young Americans feel like it’s their right to do whatever they want. Doesn’t quite work that way, at least not when I was growing up. And go figure that the same type of parenting got you people like B. Gates, and P. Allen. Go figure that one out. I’m sure that TD’s choice to move his family in one direction with no cable had buy-in. But then again, who are you to judge how he raises his kids? I could say the same about say… religious parents “forcing” their kids to go to church on Sundays.

While yes, it is based on his opinion, I agree with him having been an chat room administrator all these years. The fact that the SAT scores have been boosted twice for both verbal and math scores (once in 1995, another in later years) proves the point that younger America has some issues that can be resulted in games/texting/IMspeak/what not.

By: TDavid

TDavid — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 16:41:04 +0000

Gee, thanks for the note of confidence Ashley! LOL

Nice to see you actually brought some ideas to the table. I’m not sure me “eating rotten toenails” is going to motivate our teenagers to read more, but maybe that classifies as an idea.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 16:15:41 +0000

Personally i think that this David guy is simply retarded and should deserve hate mail and to be hung. He should have to eat rotten toe nails. His argument was based on opinion and what goes on in his house hold; not on fact. You need fact to have a valid point. No one in their right mind would turn off cable for almost a year. You can’t force someone to like something they don’t you will just push them away.

yours untruly,
Ashley.

By: engtech

engtech — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 21:08:56 +0000

5-6 years ago I was talking with a guy who ran a used book store specializing in Fantasy/Sci-fi and he was blaming it on the Internet. Why read a book in those genres when you can be the character in a game?

By: David Armstrong

David Armstrong — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 14:57:04 +0000

There is no simple answer…just possible ideas; lead by example, establish a routine of going to the bookstore and let them find/pick out a book. Personally…I think too much of anything is a bad thing..even reading books. My kids play Star Wars Lego video game and they’ve learned team work, puzzle skills, the value of patience..you’d have to play to know. So don’t assume their other activities are bad, video games, the internet, TV, etc. I just try and give my kids a variety of environments. Btw..I found this blog while reading my RSS feeds on an early Sunday morning….while they are all still sleeping.

By: Andrew Ferguson

Andrew Ferguson — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 09:32:26 +0000

I did my fair share of reading in elementary school and even found serials I enjoyed (although the names escape at the moment). I didn’t do a whole lot of reading in middle school, mostly short (four page) articles. I switched to a different school in eight grade and started reading a lot more. Really great books too, mostly fiction (Ender’s Game, Farenheight 451, Animal Farm, etc), but one or two non-fiction as well.

Highschool started out with me reading The Odyssey (I’m pretty sure I still have my copy somewhere). That was not an easy read and pretty traumatic. I started to dislike reading and would avoid it as much as possible. I remember often riding in school, franticly reading what I needed for that day. I also did a lot of Shakespear. I didn’t understand it all. I think it was the summer after my sophomore year that I decided to boycott the summer reading assignment. That didn’t go over to well and fortunately I had wonderful teachers who helped me pick things I might enjoy. I took a course called Roman Shakespeare my senior year that was pretty fun. But I was still left traumatized.

Spring semester of my junior year of college, I picked up a copy of A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. Something struck me, I hadn’t had this much fun reading in a long time. For me, I found that I like reading non-fiction waaay more than fiction. I started sucking up books again, Elegant Universe, Naked Conversations, Blink, Freakanomics, Tipping Point, etc.

Long story short, maybe give non-fiction a try…it’s worked for me.

By: Jeff Barr’s Blog » Links for Saturday, March 3, 2007

Jeff Barr’s Blog » Links for Saturday, March 3, 2007 — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 16:31:47 +0000

[…] TDavid: Why Kids Don’t Like to Read - “Any other deas for positively promoting and encouraging reading in kids? Perhaps some incentive plans for them for reading books?“ […]

By: Kara

Kara — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 15:40:59 +0000

Rinkx,
I think you’re wrong, sometimes kids even adults need to be pushed into doing things they might not want to do. We force kids into doing chores and I hardly think as they get older they won’t want to do any chores. As parents we are here to try to guide them as they grow into adults and if that means we need to force them to do say their homework, eat vegetables or whatever else they may resist it is part of our job. Also as TDavid pointed out he is actually starting to enjoy reading now. I think kids especially like to resist something thats new but once they get in a routine it is just part of their day.

By: TDavid

TDavid — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 10:17:42 +0000

actoria - I did some searches using that ozone thing and it returned nothing that he’d be interested in. I saw more Google ads than anything else. Also, why would he want to download books on “adsense” ? He’s not a webmaster and shows not interest in being one.