Dumbing down literature

“From Reader’s Digest to Cliff’s Notes to No Fear Shakespeare, simplified novels have infiltrated American society over generations. They seem innocent enough, flaunting an “easy to read” nature meant to appeal to those less versed in complex literature and language. However, while these watered down novels may be convenient for the busy, story-oriented adult reader, they are hardly appropriate for a class focused on critical reading. They’re a skewed kind of censorship that removes students from the benefits of difficult, close reading and dumbs down the English classroom.

Words are taken out that set the entire mood of the piece; phrases that define the moment and add depth to the author’s style are taken out. Removing these aspects eliminates the experience of analyzing the author’s intent and figuring out why that phrase or scene was deemed necessary.”

From: http://tigernewspaper.com/wordpress/2013/03/14/the-dangers-of-watering-down-literature/

SpyWriter Jack King, the author of:
Agents of Change, WikiJustice, The Black Vault, and The Fifth Internationale.
A new Pope. A new Church. A new world:

http://www.SpyWriter.com

How to get children to read books

“Today, with the widespread of education and the booming of the print industry, we would expect more people getting into reading habits, but this did not happen.

…some people equate reading with studying and do not read in their leisure time.

…instead of passing stories along from one generation to another, children are left to television and internet for entertainment.”

How to change it? A good starting point is your home:

“When children are used to seeing books as part of their home furniture at an early age, it helps them get attached to reading.”

More: http://m.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/education/despite-high-literacy-rate-uae-isnt-reading-books-for-pleasure

SpyWriter Jack King “A new King of thrillers on the horizon” http://www.SpyWriter.com

Why reading is important for children

“Even with video games, computer tablets and other digital resources, the book still remains a powerful tool to tell stories, teach facts, and share experiences.

Reading is very important to character development, to understand how stories flow … I can’t say that our kids are reading less. The amount of time given them to read has changed. They don’t spend as much time in the school library. The teachers want the kids to read, but there is a limit on the time they can devote to that.

Children from lower income homes are not going to have a library inside their home … The school and public library are the only places for them to have the opportunity to experience written stories.

While video lays out a visual story for children, reading compels them to use their imagination to create the characters, setting and situations in the story.”

More: http://m.exponent-telegram.com/article_41947942-5dff-11e2-8fa7-0019bb2963f4.html

SpyWriter Jack King “A new King of thrillers on the horizon” http://www.SpyWriter.com

Books expand the world

“I have been told that many schools have changed their core reading curriculum to include more modern commercial novels…

I believe there are serious consequences to the exchange of commercial writing to classic literature in curriculum. We are graduating students from American high schools, some on their way to four-year universities, with a limited and vapid literary foundation of vampires, werewolves, and wizards. This ignorance means that they will neither be able to complete a New York Times crossword puzzle or receive mercy from an English professor who’s been teaching before Stephenie Meyers was even an idea in her parent’s heads. At its worst, this American generation will go forth in a world with a great dearth of general knowledge, undoubtedly inferior to their contemporaries overseas who have had a more meaningful education, that will detract from many aspects of their lives.

Literature is not just an exercise in creative expression, it reveals and resolves, it engenders compassion and understanding, it expands our world far beyond the borders of the written page.”

From: http://blogcritics.org/books/article/fantasyland-the-limited-world-of-todays/

SpyWriter Jack King “A new King of thrillers on the horizon” http://www.SpyWriter.com

Sick society without literature

Can reading fiction cut selfishness, stop growth of mass-shooting psychopaths? One thing appears certain: reading fiction gives rise to empathy, and empathy leads to a more compassionate society.

“Schools don’t exist as job-training camps. They exist to educate students. To be truly educated, students need to graduate with more imagination, not less. They need to face questions about what it means to be a human being — they need to stop sleepwalking, if they’ve started it already — and they need to start learning how to love strangers. We all know that becoming properly educated is a lifelong endeavor. But Washington gives students a huge disadvantage if it leads them to think that memorizing data and processing facts is 70 percent of living well.”

From: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/335520/goodbye-liberal-arts-betsy-woodruff?pg=1

“Based on the results of the post-reading exercises, Johnson concluded that the more immersed the readers were in the story, the more empathy they felt for the characters. In addition, he found that the heightened empathy led to an enhanced ability to perceive subtle emotional expressions such as fear or happiness. Individuals who experienced higher levels of empathy were also nearly twice as likely to engage in pro-social, or helpful, behavior as individuals experiencing low levels of empathy.”

From: http://news.blogs.wlu.edu/2012/02/21/washington-and-lee-professor-finds-that-reading-fiction-leads-to-empathy-helpful-behavior/

SpyWriter Jack King: SpyWriter.com | Facebook | Twitter

Fiction vs Non-Fiction

“The major problem with the new Common Core State Standards is that they further diminish something that is greatly undermined from the moment we enter school: our creativity.

School essentially limits innovation. The best way to succeed in school is to repeat exactly what the teacher says. But the most effective way to express one’s creativity in school has always been through the reading of fiction.

Through fiction, we are able to let our imaginations run wild, assign meaning to complex passages and have a chance to attack certain situations and moral dilemmas without living them. Reading fiction is an active, involved process.”

From: http://m.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2012/12/05/ac2f6df2-3e2e-11e2-8a5c-473797be602c_story.html

SpyWriter Jack King “A new King of thrillers on the horizon” http://www.SpyWriter.com

Reading is crucial to success

“The hard fact is that either directly or indirectly parents are role models to their children. … As regards reading, parents need to become readers first since its even easy for children to copy what parents do than hear what parents tell them to do. Therefore, set the example. …

Reading is very important. It is through reading that we learn to think and write. …

Even at pre-school age, children that are read to tend to perform better than those that are not read to, because they are exposed to books and new vocabularies which helps their language development.

Latest research studies link reading proficiency with better grades in all subjects. For example at 8 months, when comparing two babies of the same age, it was indicated that a child that was read to had receptive vocabularies (number of words they understand) increase by 40 per cent since baby hood, while the child that was not read to had an increase of only 16 per cent.

Even at pre-school age, children that are read to tend to perform better than those that are not read to because they are exposed to books and new vocabularies which helps their language development.

Children that are read to develop longer attention span which is an important skill for children in order for them to be able to concentrate and it builds listening skills and imagination. Henceforth, reading books is one of the most important activities that make children obtain better grades in their academic endeavors.”

More: http://m.allafrica.com/stories/201212040095.html/

SpyWriter Jack King “A new King of thrillers on the horizon” http://www.SpyWriter.com

Literary movie adaptations no replacement for novels

A student “says he prefers watching films to reading novels.

He argues that watching a movie is more interesting than reading a novel.

“Reading is boring and sometimes when my teacher is reading a novel, I do not follow well,” Mponye says.

He also says it saves time to follow a story condensed in a movie, other than reading 500 pages of a novel.

Many young people today prefer watching television and using computer to reading. Educationists argue that parents and teachers should serve as models by reading and value reading culture.

[...] a literature teacher [...] says he always reads the novels together with his students. But after reading, he ensures that they watch the movie.

“Students pay more attention to movies than during reading sessions in class. It also breaks monotony of appearing before them in class,” Kigongo explains.

“However, movies should not be allowed to replace novels or books [...]

It is believed that access to more books leads to language and literacy development. These reading materials should arouse the children’s passion for reading.

They should have interesting topics, simple grammar and exciting diction to instill a love for reading.

This love cannot be forced upon any one; instead, it can be nurtured. …

The American Association of Pediatrics advises parents to read to their children right from a tender age.

When a child reads a book, for instance, it stimulates the brain, the muscles, eyes and sense of smell and touch through turning pages.

In addition, their cognitive, social and emotional abilities are improved.”

From: newvision.co.ug

WikiJustice: WikiLeaks meets Jack London’s The Assassination Bureau, Ltd. http://www.SPYWRITER.com

Who needs literature?

“Starting this year, at least half of all reading in our schools is supposed to be non-fiction. And that includes kindergarten.

What makes matters even worse for later grades is that students already read non-fiction almost exclusively in all their other courses, so if you take science, social studies, and math into account, only one-eighth of student reading will be literary. And that fraction is likely to shrink in the future.

So the question looms: Is literature necessary? …

While ripping “The Cat in the Hat” from the hands of kindergarteners and replacing it with “How Factories Work” may, in the long run, produce better factory workers, it is unlikely to produce better citizens. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be operated on by a doctor who couldn’t master “Dr. Zhivago,” nor do I want to be defended by a lawyer who thinks Sydney Carton is a box of Australian cigarettes.

In truth, we should be encouraging students to read more literature, not less. Literature allows us to see how all humans are connected through common experiences and emotions. It allows us to examine our past and plan for our future. It can help make us more empathetic to our fellows. Perhaps most importantly literature exposes us to new ideas and forces us to think in new ways.

If our goal is to improve education, what could be more practical than that?”

From: http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/08/15/never-mind-algebra-is-literature-necessary/

Books make Friends for Life

 ”Data from the NEA points to a dramatic and accelerating decline in the number of young people reading fiction. Despite their enthusiasm for books in grade school, by high school, most kids are not reading for pleasure at all.  

Statistics don’t bode well for a happy ending: One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives. Over 58 percent of the U.S. adult population never reads another book after high school. Nearly 42 percent of college graduates never read another book. Over 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year. Just under 70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years. There’s more, but you get it. If 4 out of 5 adults aren’t reading, then their kids will never read either.  

And that’s a shame. Because good books, like good friends, stay with you for life, always there when you want or need to draw on them. I can’t imagine life without them.  

No matter what your child does in life, the key to success will be reading skills. You owe it to your children to read with them, as well as to them. You’ll not only be teaching them a critical life-skill, you’ll be giving them the one thing they crave from you the most – your time.”

More: http://www.tctimes.com/columnists/if_i_were_king/help-wanted-must-be-able-to-read/article_f77c1fe8-d97b-11e1-95a5-001a4bcf887a.html

### END OF POST ###
http://www.SPYWRITER.com