Deprive boys of video games to make them read...

[Paksenarrion]

This would make an interesting social experiment:

1. Deprive a child of all forms of electronic media from the very beginning, so that they are not aware that such a thing even exists.

2. Present child with a plethora of books that make no mention of electronic media.

3. ???

4. Child takes up farming.

Good news, everyone! Problem accomplished!

 

[Mstrswrd]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704271804575405511702112290.html#articleTabs=article

The idea behind this article, I believe, is that boys (and ONLY boys, as girls do not play video games apparently) who do not like to read should not be pandered to by giving them "gross-out" books to read or bribed with video games in order to get them to read. Rather, they should be deprived of all electronic stimuli until they are so starved for entertainment they HAVE to read to relieve the boredom.

Hm. Discuss, Escapists: Rational, logical suggestion? Or is someone WAY overstepping their bounds here?

Horrible ides. I read alot when I was a child because I liked it, I and I still do today. I also game a lot. Other people I knew hated reading, and if you take away they're games, they went outside and played, they'd do chores, they'd do anything but read.

Hell, one time I was grounded, and had everything taken away except for books, but seeing as I had read every single book I owned at least twice, I felt no need to read them again, so, instead o going out and getting new books, I just sat there and did nothing... for 6 months. I would go to school, come home, do my homework, and than stare at the wall for hours until dinner. After dinner, I would star at a wall until it was time to go to sleep.

That may seem like it was unique, but I actually knew a fair amount of people who would rather sit there bing totally bored instead of reading; they were that against it. The very act of reading brought them no enjoyment; in fact, to them, reading was less interesting that just sitting there and thinking about things. If you have a good imagination, you can keep busy for months without ever moving off of your chair. Yeah, we may make them bored by taking away their games, but, chances are, if they're not already reading, they're going to find reading more boring than doing literally nothing.

This was an uncessarily long and rambling post (and it was fairly repetitive). Apologies for that; I'm running on about 5 hours of sleep over 3 days, so I'm a bit out of it.

 

[Darkauthor81]

I was in remedial reading when I was in the first grade. Then I found Choose Your Own Adventure books. For those who don't know, these books were filled with decisions for the reader to make.

Does Jimmy go down the left path? Turn to page 63
Does Jimmy go down the right path? Turn to page 42

The books had several different endings based on your choices, most of which had your character dieing in horrible ways.

I LOVED these books so much that I read all that the library had, then I branched out into fantasy books. Books became my life.

By the forth grade I was tested at reading at a post-college graduate level.

It's all about presenting the books to the kids in a way that appeals to them. Forcing them into something they're not interested in will only make them hate reading.

 

[GrimHeaper]

I was in remedial reading when I was in the first grade. Then I found Choose Your Own Adventure books. For those who don't know, these books were filled with decisions for the reader to make.

Does Jimmy go down the left path? Turn to page 63
Does Jimmy go down the right path? Turn to page 42

The books had several different endings based on your choices, most of which had your character dieing in horrible ways.

I LOVED these books so much that I read all that the library had, then I branched out into fantasy books. Books became my life.

By the forth grade I was tested at reading at a post-college graduate level.

It's all about presenting the books to the kids in a way that appeals to them. Forcing them into something they're not interested in will only make them hate reading.

I miss those books they don't sell them publicly anymore.

 

[acosn]

If you're bribing your kids with video games to read you already failed. Reading starts early, though it doesn't hurt to have it reinforced. It mostly just helps to have your kids playing the right video games. Playing mostly strategy and role playing games I didn't get a choice- it was read to know what's going on with the game, or don't play at all.

Of course, I'd also say that the article is pretty biased when the author of it is also the president of a publishing company. It's practically his job to get people to buy books.

 

[Mortons4ck]

When I was a young boy

Any article that starts this way should be immediately raising some red flags in your mind.

Most importantly, a boy raised on great literature is more likely to grow up to think, to speak, and to write like a civilized man. Whom would you prefer to have shaped the boyhood imagination of your daughter's husband?Raymond Bean or Robert Louis Stevenson?

What are you talking about? We've had a whole generation raised on R.L. Stevenson's pirate stories, and what did it get us?

Way to support copyright infringement, Tom.

 

[Bre2nan]

From what I gathered in the article, it seems that Spence has found and employs the proper way to get boys to read, but has misdiagnosed it here. He seems to think that depriving his sons of electronic stimulii alone has encouraged them to enjoy reading.

The one factor that he has failed to acknowledge is that HE RAISED HIS KIDS ON BOOKS. He probably reads to them, and encourages them to read on their own. That's the way to do it: if you want your children to love books, raise them on books. Read to them, read with them, and they will read on their own.

As for why this article is focused on boys, well, that's just a statement of this guy's biases that many people on this thread have already pointed out through the books he publishes. He states that giving boys what they want in books will "produce a generation of barbarians and morons rather than raising the sort of men who make good husbands, fathers and professionals."

This is simply another arena of imposing the established gender role on boys whether it is good for them or not. It puts all the responsibility on men to be the leaders and moral champions of society. And what does "good" mean? There are many approaches to marriage, parenting, and business, you know! This only serves to confirm his personal bias.

Also, demonizing video games and the Internet without reason, are we? And no, "they won't read books" isn't going to cut it. You need to explain exactly why books are better than video games, and have enough of an understanding of both media to make an effective judgment.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I'd have to guess that using books as a punishment isn't going to persuade many kids that they're better than video games.

Also, despite doing a lot of reading and being almost reverential about books (no, I can't just throw one away), I've also wondered, that once you've learned to read, and you've matured to adulthood, why is reading still seen as so much more 'worthy' than TV or videogames, or almost anything else.

Unless you're reading something educational, the most you'll get out of it is maybe a couple of new words added to your vocabulary, and that could have happened thru other mediums.

Again, I love books and reading, I'm just playing devil's advocate, wondering why it's placed on such a pedestal compared with other recreational activities.

 

[RandV80]

I'm a bit confused by the article, is it complaining more about video games or rather these so called 'gross out' books that I've never heard about and seem to be getting blown out of proportion in his article? He presents the argument as being the classic Treasure Island vs Sir Fartsalot competing for boys reading attention. So where does something like Harry Potter fit into the picture?

I don't really like his argument how to get kids reading over video games because it suggests that books are a lesser medium of entertainment, which I don't buy. Maybe something that literary scholars consider a classic like Catcher in the Rye may not have the same appeal, but I'd like to think if you hand a 12 year old a Harry Potter book or Lord of the Rings he'd put the video game controller aside. I know I certainly would, I try not to read too often because it's far to addictive to me and I'll easily burn through hundreds of pages without a break for days, even weeks. I know back in the day one summer vacation when I was in junior high or maybe early high school and discovered Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series I burned through the first 5 books in 3 weeks.

 

[Darkauthor81]

I was in remedial reading when I was in the first grade. Then I found Choose Your Own Adventure books. For those who don't know, these books were filled with decisions for the reader to make.

Does Jimmy go down the left path? Turn to page 63
Does Jimmy go down the right path? Turn to page 42

The books had several different endings based on your choices, most of which had your character dieing in horrible ways.

I LOVED these books so much that I read all that the library had, then I branched out into fantasy books. Books became my life.

By the forth grade I was tested at reading at a post-college graduate level.

It's all about presenting the books to the kids in a way that appeals to them. Forcing them into something they're not interested in will only make them hate reading.

I miss those books they don't sell them publicly anymore.

REALLY?? That's sad.

I'm thinking about writing some. Maybe putting them up on the web as a flash game or something. I dunno. As I remember, they weren't particularly good but they were still a lot of fun.

I encountered something similar when I was a child. There was a phone number in the phone book you could call for phone based story games. You had a choice of 3 stories to play each week. A recording would read you the story. Each one had three different choices to make and 3 different options.

What stuck out in my mind so much was that the story reader was so incredibly belligerent! lol

"The headless ghost turns and sees you. It brings its horse around and charges down the hall toward you! You only have time to use one of your ghost fighting devices! What will it be? The ghost neutralizer? press 1. The spirit gun? press 2. The gem of Atrail? Press 3"

Press 3

"You IDIOT! The gem of Atrail only works on physical paranomal creatures! He's a freaking ghost! Your head, and your soul, are carried to hell by the horseman! Are you happy now ya freaking moron?"

It was so much fun and completely hilarious. They came out with a new set of stories each week.

 

[teebeeohh]

i learned to read a year before my time because i wanted to play Links awakening, i learned how to read long and complex text because i read every single paragraph of the Age of Empire mission briefings(which also peaked my interest in history). i started reading books when my mom got me the first Harry Potter after graduating primary school best of my class(well second best but best boy anyway). So fuck you sir, you are just wrong.

oh and my parents did an awesome deal of parenting on me

 

[Korolev]

If you teach your kids to read, they'll read. If you give them good books from an early age, read to them, help them read, and discuss books with them, chances are, they'll read.

Depriving video games does nothing. I read about.... oh, I'd say at least 30 books a year, and countless newspaper articles, magazine articles, wikipedia articles and journals. And I play the hell out of videogames as well.

Video games aren't the problem - you can play video games AND read books. The problem is that the current education system is awful, and parents no longer teach their kids to read. That's the real problem: Parents, who assume that the kids will turn out fine. Parents, who put next to no effort in raising their kids because "hey, that's what school's for right?"

And besides, it's not like video games are "stealing" kids away from books. Some kids find books boring, and if you take away video games they'll just go outside and run around. You can't force people to enjoy reading, as much as I would like to be able to do that.

So yes - if parents actually read books to their kids and taught them the joy of reading, they would read. And if they don't, well, don't go blaming video games because Jimmy can't read simple sentences.

 

[TehCookie]

Video games and Adult Swim are probably two of the things that made me a better (and mostly faster) reader. When I was 7 years old and watching adult swim and when they had the text on the screen I realized it went by pretty fast. Same with video games since my brother was playing them and he's older and smarter so he would read the text a lot faster. I had to learn to pick up the pace if I wanted to read it all, so I did. Also even with all the TV and games I watched I still liked to read a book before I went to bed.

 

[LogieBear]

Wont this just make them hate reading?
Give them a text based, or heavy worded game, to be honest thats how I learnt too spell in my younger years. Thanks Bethesda!

 

[phantasmalWordsmith]

I don't think we're stupid enough to give up reading even with electronics. I have friends who are big book readers, I have acquaintances who read when they find a book that they like. They all have consoles, they all read books at one time or another.

I don't approve of this method but if it all comes down to circumstances as to how I react to it

I'm gonna put it into circumstance. Say we have a family with two kids, a girl and a boy. Boy has a console and is not a big reader. His parents were big readers as is his sister. If the parents paid for the console, I would disapprove of getting the boy to read more through this method but I wouldn't get in a huff and a puff about it, I'd start a thread on this website. Now if the boy had saved up his money and bought the console himself, now that just wouldn't be right. He paid for it, he has every right to decide what to do with it.

 

[captainwolfos]

This has actually happened to me briefly once or twice. When grounded I was never not allowed out, mostly because I never saw the point in going out, I just had electronics removed from the things I could do. When this happened, I didn't turn to reading, I just went to bed.

I was always interested in books as a kid, and I was bullied in school because of it (which is perhaps another reason why this potentially wouldn't work), but as I got older I lost interest in books and turned all of my attention to video games. Which mostly contain reading, because I love RPGs with a lot of lore. I think I've read all the books in the Elder Scrolls series, and all of the Codexes in Dragon Age.

My point boils down to this; if you ban a kid from doing something, it will find something else to do. If you ban a kid from doing something and make the kid do something else that it doesn't want to do, it will find something else to do, and probably hate you for it.

 

[Dimensional Vortex]

This would just force them to hate any form or reading which completely destroys what reading is all about: imagination and joy. If you cant be happy with what your reading then you certainly wont be able to enjoy the book or imagine it.

Even if you do force the child, they will get extremely angry and spiteful to the point where they're on the verge of an angry reaction.

 

[SniperMacFox]

This news article is an amazingly stereotypical view of not only gaming but literature and children as well.
"What's this!? Children who aren't well educated and do recieve support from home to read books AREN'T READING BOOKS?! Well, it must be video games that are the problem! Back when I was young, we only had rocks or books to entertain ourselves and I grew up to be a social bigot, so it must be video games that are the scorn of children!"
I read Shakespeare for fun, I play everything from Pokémon to Half Life and if I didn't have one of them it wouldn't mean that I would only do the other.
Also the guy banging on about "Gross Out" books isn't really supporting his own argument, as by mentioning them he must be also under the impression that literature has to be disgusting to be engaging for younger children, which I think is kinda like saying "If you want children to pay attention to you, pick your nose in front of them." This isn't Fable, Mr. Spence.

 

[BENZOOKA]

That is true. And works.

It's as simple as "Are you more eager to eat a food, that is by no means your favorite, when there isn't anything better available, and you're starving?"

I'll be a dozen times more inclined towards reading, if there's no computer around for some while.

 

[moretimethansense]

While I agree that boys (and girls) need to read more this is a very stupid idea.

Personally I used to love reading; lately I've not had the attention span for it though.