Posted on 11/19/2007 5:08:44 AM PST by upchuck
We know what young people are doing more of: watching television, surfing the Web, listening to their iPods, talking on cellphones, and instant-messaging their friends. But a new report released today by the National Endowment for the Arts makes clear what they're doing a lot less of: reading.
The report - a 99-page compendium of more than 40 studies by universities, foundations, business groups, and government agencies since 2004 - paints a dire picture of plummeting levels of reading among young people over the past two decades. Among the findings:
Only 30 percent of 13-year-olds read almost every day.
The number of 17-year-olds who never read for pleasure increased from 9 percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004.
Almost half of Americans between ages 18 and 24 never read books for pleasure.
The average person between ages 15 and 24 spends 2 to 2 1/2 hours a day watching TV and 7 minutes reading.
"This is a massive social problem," NEA chairman Dana Gioia, said by phone from Washington. "We are losing the majority of the new generation. They will not achieve anything close to their potential because of poor reading."
It is not just the amount of reading. According to the report, reading ability has fallen as well. While scores have improved for 9-year-olds, they dropped sharply for 17-year-olds. Only about a third of high school seniors read at a proficient level, a 13 percent decline since 1992. "And proficiency is not a high standard," Gioia said. "We're not asking them to be able to read Proust in the original. We're talking about reading the daily newspaper."
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
bt on th Inet u dnt need 2 spel.
And, this is a surprise to whom?
LOL - but you do outside of IM
I cee you ar a fello graduat of the Evelyn Woodhead Sped Reddin Korse.
I am a voracious reader. I read with my kids from the time they were old enough to enjoy it.. Now they read for pleasure all the time. My one rule was that I never said no to buying a book if they wanted to read it. Now they recommend books to me and I recommend books to them. Reading is the most fundemental skill they need for success and both my kids are doing great.
My oldest daughter, you would have to drag her into the book store kicking and screaming. She’s extremely intelligent, but she hates reading.
My youngest daughter called me last night while she was in Books a Million. She was all excited because she bought 10 books for $35. Her bedroom is wall to wall books right now. I guarantee she’ll have bookshelves lining the walls when she gets old.
That’s why God made libraries.
For some, perhaps.
Everyone in my family is *still* in a perpetual state of having more books than bookshelves...
I don’t know if this will help but restudy your phonetic principles and spelling will become a lot easier.
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