Dumbing Down - Part 2

Excerpt from Endangered Minds.

The Two-Minute Mind:

Why don't - or can't - most young people read? One of the most common complaints among this generation is that books are "too hard" or "boring". Many have trouble with the mental organization and sustained effort demanded by reading. Coming to grips with verbal logic, wrestling one's mind into submission to an author's un-familiar point of view, and struggling to make connections appear to be particularly taxing to today's young intellects.

Informal reports help explain the reality behind the statistics. Even some English majors now find sustained prose a drag. Kristin Eddy, a news aide at the Washington Post and literature major at George Washington University, reported recently on a hands-up poll revealing that only half of her upper-level classmates had bothered to finish the assigned All the King's Men, a bestselling favorite of a previous student generation. Why? "Boring!", "Too hard to follow". Another classmate commented that it "went so slowly that it seemed like it was written by a retarded person".

Students may be learning to sound out words, but unless they possess the internal sense of responsibility for extracting the meaning, they are engaging in a hollow and unsatisfying exercise. With major effort's, we have succeeded in teaching students in early grades to "read the words." Test scores jump off a cliff, however, when students must begin to plug the words into language meaning and grapple with the more advanced grammar, vocabulary, and the sustained intellectual demands of a real text.




Going back to my last post, I would like to say that it is not entirely the fault of video games or TV that children are not reading. I think that it is us as parents who are at fault. Obviously, it is easy to blame current technology for a lot of things, but the reality is, parents actually allow their kids to watch TV, or play video games, or do not read to them. The society we live in is one that both parents work, everyone is running around doing "stuff", we are not content to sit at home, read, play a board game as a family, or just run around outside. Children are overstimulated and easily bored.

Also, I found today that Al Mohler actually blogged about the reading issue a few months ago. Check it out.

Random

It has been a while since I last posted. It has been busy around here with swimming lessons etc. I do have some things I have wanted to post on, but it will have to wait for the weekend, or next week. For now, here is an article by Al Mohler that I found interesting. I find it so sad that less and less children are playing outside.

http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=957

Also, somewhat related, here is a book I noticed him talking about in one of his blogs. It is about the importance of "boys being boys", getting hurt, being brave etc.

http://www.dangerousbookforboys.com/

Also, please continue to pray for the Haiti team. I have not heard anything recently, but you can see what is going on by visiting Janelle's site: http://janelle-marie-phillips.blogspot.com/

Enjoy and off to swimming lessons.....again.