Literacy

Before we react to the lower amount of reading, what exactly is the problem we seek to solve?

Is the problem declining student reading scores? We need to improve reading comprehension. Students may need to learn how to read more effectively so increasing the quantity may not help that much.

Is the problem half of adults read no books in a year? Is that really a problem? What adults do seems to be the canary for pointing out how we are a culture going to collapse soon. Two, three generations later, we are still here… More wealthy and concerned about a wider variety of issues.

Howard Gardner has an interesting article in the Washington Post about how the form of reading has changed over time. Just because we read out of books in the 18th to 20th centuries doesn’t mean books will remain the primary form ideas will be delivered in the 21st century.


One response to “Literacy”

  1. Amy Avatar
    Amy

    If I have one addiction it is reading. My theory is that if you do not learn to enjoy reading as a child you will not read as an adult. Too often reading becomes a chore which children choose not to do. Reading, like art or music will give you back what you put into it. It can be a place to escape, or pass the time, it can also be a way to stretch your mind in new directions, or revisit things you have forgotten.

    Many years ago using a computer to read books was proposed as the way of the future, but most computers are not as easy to carry and read from as a printed books so that future didn’t appear. That may soon change, I saw the Sony ebook at the bookstore (yes some people still go to bookstores), it has potential…
    The Reader Digital Book

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