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

[A Free Man]

I honestly don't know why reading is such an important thing for parents. I have never really liked reading and yet in an attempt to not brag to much I believe I am doing perfectly fine in school and am even one of the better students at english in my class/year. Having a large vocabulary may give the illusion of intelligence but in reality it doesn't make much of a difference.

 

[Le_Lisra]

What got my back into reading was this: when I was around 9 years old we were visiting my awesome grandmother way up in northern norway. She had a computer then but with 4-5 kids (me, sister and several cousins) all needing it and me being the second youngest, it was often occupied. This fact, and the stern order of my sister "read this!" made me read "Die roten Matrosen" by Klaus Kordon and the book was so awesome, I simply never stopped.

So, deprivation can help a bit. But well.. not in the way article schmuck proposes.

 

[ThatLankyBastard]

Hell, I read more than I video-game!

 

[Hoplon]

Well, I grew up with out video games so had to read a lot. there might be something in it.

 

[Togs]

I actually made an account and was halfway through writing a "review" of the article, but stopped myself when I realised it was turning into little more then a vitriolic rant.

The author is not only arrogant but clueless as to human nature, displaying the virulent stupidity expected from the very worst of stereotypes.

The hack of a writer also is shockingly snobbish, showing a complete lack of knowledge for the medium he so quickly dissmisses.

I grew up with both books and games, both were used as bonding oppurtunities with my parents, and I adore both.
His method, as others have previously stated, would serve only to drive young males further away from the desired outcome- your best bet is to read to your kids from a young age, instil in them a love of reading and such crap as "sir fartsalot" will never even venture into theri minds.

(Wow even after this rant im still pissed, nothing like an ignorant hick to get my hackles up)

 

[Leg End]

I think it's a load of shit.

Also, give them Captain Underpants books.

All who read Captain Underpants turn into /b/tards.

Also, have the boys(because girls don't play vidya according to news media) play something like Pokemon. Text out the ass and you learn math.

 

[BlueSinbad]

I always claimed that seeing as I constantly played Final Fantasy 7, 8 & 9 I got plenty of reading done anyway so HA!

 

[Eponet]

Wonderful plan.

I've had highly unrestricted access to games, books, television, and all sorts of other varying stimuli since whenever I felt like it. I was just taught about time management and prioritisation early on, as well as having parents who read to me and took an /active/ involvement in my education.

One of my friends however has had incredibly strict parents that stopped her from doing anything outside of 'traditional' activities and nothing else, just restricted access to things that she disapproves of.

Now I got into the top university in the country, and she completely failed, in every single subject.

I guess that it's only supposed to apply to boys, but I'm using this story anyway and throwing gender discrimination to the wind.

 

[jhlip]

Wow, forcing children to read by depriving them of everything else. You know what might work, taking them to a book store and asking them to find a book to read. Nah, let's force the kid to feel like something that he could potentially enjoy is more like a form of punishment. That'll teach him to read.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

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?

Indeed. Or give them GOOD books. Lets face it, Shakespeare, while a huge figure in his time, is fuckin tedious reading unless its your kinda thing.

Give em some Trainspotting or something.

Though in fairness writting in a scotish accent is harder to read that shakespeare... bad example.

I was never ol' Willy's biggest fan, but one should study at least one of his plays in your lifetime, but it should be one of the interesting ones like MacBeth or Much Ado About Nothing (which, once you get your head around the language, is fucking hilarious).

There's an author called Matthew Reilly who writes books that he admits are targeted at 'teenage boys'.

A small sample of his work:

Temple:

Deep in the Jungles of Peru, the race of the century is underway.
A race to locate a legendary Incan idol - and idol carves out of a strange
kind of stone. A stone which in the late 20th century could be used as
the basis for a terrifying weapon.

The US Army wants that idol - at any cost - but they are not alone...

The only clue to the idol's final resting place lies in a 400-year-old
manuscript. Enter Professor William Race, a mild-mannered
young linguist, who is unwillingly recruited to translate the
manuscript and lead the Army team to the idol.

And so begins the mission. A mission that will lead Race and his
companions to a mysterious stone temple hidden in the foothills of
the Andes. A temple seething with menace and danger.
But only is it when the temple is opened that Race and his team
discover that they have broken a golden rule...

Some doors are meant to remain unopened.

Now I've read this book and I could much about it, but all you need to know is that there is a scene where someone kills a villain, inside a tank in free fall, and then has to disable some kind of super-nuke inside the tank.

There's also his series about Shane 'Scarecrow' Schofield, a Force Recon Marine who always, always ends up with half a dozen other special forces teams trying to shoot his ass, but always coming out on top.

This shit is like Michael Bay in paperback, but better if you ask me.

Also there's Lee Child's 'Reacher' novels, about an ex-Military Policeman who drifts around the country kicking arses, taking names, stopping terrorists, crackpots and evildoers and their nefarious schemes and sleeping with hot women.

This is slightly more sophisticated than Matthew Reilly but only just. All I'm saying is that if your young son would be the kind to enjoy explosions, men being manly, women being awesome, and good guys stomping bad guys into dust, these books are a pretty good jumping off point.

 

[Verlander]

I think they are picking on the wrong crowd. Gamers read more than most people, even if it is sci-fi/fantasy. I think this is the whole prejudice against those genres of books, but you know? The sci fi and fantasy genres are some of the most intellectual and cutting edge work in the written world. Many sci fi writers (like Philip K Dick or Isaac Asimov) are now considered to be literary greats...

Maybe they should ban sports until sports fans become readers?

 

[Legendsmith]

Yeah, nah. This doesn't work.
Some people really enjoy reading because it caters to their style of thinking. Others don't They won't really get as much out of reading X book as someone else.
You can't force them to.

 

[Woodsey]

If we get bored, we wank.

Obviously none of the people behind this were teenage guys once.

 

[manythings]

I read pretty much non stop for at least 10 years before I really got into video games. Seriously by the time I was 17 I ran out of Fantasy and Science Fiction books to read in my local library in the young adult and even the adult section (that was a fun little adventure).

OT:
Honestly you just need to find the genre that they like and they will soak it up. Forcing them to read is only going to make them hate it more.

I think the education system has proved that if anything will motivate children it is pointless, unending boredom with no other options.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

Yea so get boys so bored they have to read just for something to do?...Ok has the person who come up with this idea ever met and adolescent boy before? All i can say is from my experience is that this is a monumentally stupid idea. Boredom and boys/men do not mix well...chaos usually ensues

Edit
BTW i love reading and actually sometimes have to be shouted at to put books down.

 

[Flames66]

I learned a large part of my vocabulary from playing games.

 

[Kadoodle]

I'm male, and I have been able to read since I was 4. I started reading chapter books when I was 6. And for my entirety of my life I have always been the best at English in my class. I could read quickly and articulately while others stumbled over words longer than two syllables, and I have always had the largest vocabulary of my peers.

Because of my advanced pace, I was often discriminated against, not just by the students, but also by the teachers. When I was in first grade, and the entire class was reading together, they would tell me not to read so I wouldn't make the other kids feel stupid. I didn't have any gaming resources at the time...if I had, I'd be a lot stupider today.

I pretty much stopped reading after I read Mogworld...every other book I've picked up fails to meet Yahtzee's awesomeness.