I agree with that post, but also had this in my--not a rant.
*****
See, reading is one thing and reading for enjoyment is another, but reading a novel is a different skillset entirely, and not one that's introduced to kids in a pleasant, non-threatening way, but with like, here is your first novel, do a book report, wtf? Reading a novel is not like reading a short story, which is not like reading a poem, which is not like reading a script, which is not like reading a play, which is not like--you see where I am going with this? Literacy is like, the least of it. The big, difficult, and for a lot of people, insurmountable issue with reading is that if your first major experience with a novel was to be handed like, A Wrinkle in Time and told to do a book report on theme, honestly to God I am surprised we are still a literate society when you're eleven years old and your exposure up to now has been ten page short stories with neatly wrapped endings.
I can only speak from experience and manipulation tactics with my son, nieces and nephew to teach them to appreciate something that takes a while not only to read, but to absorb and understand, and much more importantly, to learn to love the fact that it does take time, sometimes a lot of time, to do those things. We're taught to read in increments of ten minutes, twenty, thirty, attention span, bah, but there's rarely a slow introduction to learning to read something that you can't finish in one sitting but will still draw you back to read more, and maybe re-read what you already read.
*****
And you know, the fact that a lot of the 'classics' are stylistically not only outdated but seriously, the sheer difference in social context is boggling when you hand a kid David Copperfield and expect him to get what the story is actually about.
no subject
I agree with that post, but also had this in my--not a rant.
*****
See, reading is one thing and reading for enjoyment is another, but reading a novel is a different skillset entirely, and not one that's introduced to kids in a pleasant, non-threatening way, but with like, here is your first novel, do a book report, wtf? Reading a novel is not like reading a short story, which is not like reading a poem, which is not like reading a script, which is not like reading a play, which is not like--you see where I am going with this? Literacy is like, the least of it. The big, difficult, and for a lot of people, insurmountable issue with reading is that if your first major experience with a novel was to be handed like, A Wrinkle in Time and told to do a book report on theme, honestly to God I am surprised we are still a literate society when you're eleven years old and your exposure up to now has been ten page short stories with neatly wrapped endings.
I can only speak from experience and manipulation tactics with my son, nieces and nephew to teach them to appreciate something that takes a while not only to read, but to absorb and understand, and much more importantly, to learn to love the fact that it does take time, sometimes a lot of time, to do those things. We're taught to read in increments of ten minutes, twenty, thirty, attention span, bah, but there's rarely a slow introduction to learning to read something that you can't finish in one sitting but will still draw you back to read more, and maybe re-read what you already read.
*****
And you know, the fact that a lot of the 'classics' are stylistically not only outdated but seriously, the sheer difference in social context is boggling when you hand a kid David Copperfield and expect him to get what the story is actually about.