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

[WorldCritic]

What's so special about reading? If someone wants to experience a story or learn the writer's message, whatever it may be, there are plenty of other ways to go about it besides reading a book.

Terrible idea. Chances are the kid will spite you and not even read. Then what? He's permenantly pissed at you for taking away his source of entertainment. And what if he does read? Where's the guarantee that he'll find a book that speeks to him? That keeps him interested? And also, what is the point of reading for pleasure? To get a narrative right? To experience conflict and characters in a well written world. Video games (good ones) achieve the same if not better effect then books.

/eye roll
Books are a documentation of the past, hopes of the future, ideas, themes, dreams, and of the soul of humanity. Unlike most of the other types of entertainment, almost all books contain deeper, more meaningful themes used to educate people on the human condition. Video games, on the other hand, are made to make money and provide entertainment. I love video games, but a comparison of the two is a fucking joke.
Anyway. What I would do as a parent who wanted my child to get into reading, is have them get the same number of hours playing video games as they do reading books/studying. For every hour reading a book, they get an hour of television/computer/gaming time. I'd say this would continue until they were about...12-13? Then they could spend however much time they want as long as they keep up with their studies.

I never said there was anything wrong with reading, hell sometimes I prefer a book over movies or games. All I was saying is that in quite a few cases the message of a book can be said through some other form of entertainment. Also I wasn't really comparing them, the idea of this thread just irritates me a little since my parents literally forced me to read when I was a kid by taking away everything except a book of their choosing and it didn't work in the slightest.

 

[MalthusX]

One of the most important things parents need to remeber is that if children do not see you reading, they will not do it. Telling your children to read while you only sit blitzed infront of the television does not send the right message.

You also have to involve your children. Several people on this webpage has mentioned that their parents read to them. Mine read to me, and I fully intend to do the same for my children. If you don't know what your child would like to read, try actually watching their TV, movie, and gaming habits. Do they like space adventure? Try a little classic Heinlein. Fantasy is easy: The Hobbit and Narnia. And get the child to read back to you. Some of the best memories I have are of our family reading to each other while on vacation.

Everyone likes a good story, you simply have to introduce children to this particular story delivery mechanism.

 

[GrimHeaper]

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?

They still have penises and sports it shall not work.

 

[MagusVulpes]

This seems like a logical response, similar to if people over eat you simply refuse to let them eat at all. Yes, this will garner the results they seek. I see no way in which this could go wrong. None whatsoever. If you're still reading, I hope you've caught the sarcasm by now.

 

[Lilani]

"How to Raise Boys That Read." That sounds like the title of a chapter in one of those bad parenting books. Or maybe a magazine headline from the 1950s--back when Leave it to Beaver was at the top of its game and women only mattered if they were in a kitchen or giving birth.

Really, this is patronizing at best and blatantly offensive and ignorant at worst. Yet another potshot at video games, labeling them as some sort of drug habit that parents must uncover and eradicate.

 

[Screamarie]

Why is it that everyone thinks that to be considered intelligent you have to have read a library? Why do we make children feel bad for reading comics and fantasy novels and then turn around and say "you never read anything!"?

Every child should be literate, it's simply one of those things like math and science that you should know the basics of, but outside of being able to read and write well enough for school work, it becomes a hobby.

Maybe if we provided students with more interesting things to read they'd want to read. Encourage students to read anything! We only give them boring things to read in class, and discourage them from reading comics, when really we should be encouraging them to read comics and Captain Underpants and Cirque du Freak. Gross-out books are fun! Goosebumps are fun! If you want more boys (and children in general) to read, don't make it a chore, make it interesting!

How did Tom Sawyer pawn his chores off on other little boys? Not because he told them it would make them of better character, but because he said "boy this sure is fun!"

 

[Grospoliner]

Negative reinforcement doesn't work. Also, its a logical fallacy to attempt to promote reading by banning other stimuli. I am both an avid gamer and reader. I expressly play games BECAUSE they have stories, not in lieu of.

If you want to get someone into reading, you should read to them from a young age. You also need to expose them to a variety of stories and reading styles.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Video games consist of tons of reading. What makes one form of reading better than another? They need to make games that increase reading skills that don't stink.

Some video games perhaps. Plenty of absurdly popular ones on the other hand do not. I hardly think that various little quotes during loading or the UI of Black Ops would qualify as reading, for example. I'd even go so far as to say that games that require significant reading in order to play are the exception rather than the rule and most of these fall under the umbrella of RPG.

 

[Poofs]

ive always liked reading
ive always liked video-games
ive always found time for both
no problem there

also, what about games that have textual conversations, like Pokemon, or Ocarina of Time
wouldnt that be a good compromise?

 

[Jodah]

Or you can spend an hour with your kid in a reputable bookstore or library to help find a genre they enjoy. The most irritating statement, at least for me, is the idea that females read more than males. With that being said I am going to go read my current book Orcs : Bad Blood and go to sleep.

 

[espada1311]

i fell i should point out that the "get them really bored" tactic has been tried (unintentionally) in other places, and has never ended well. When a kid has nothing to do, they will not immediately run to a book. they go for the most fun available options, like drugs, alcohol or gang violence. If you are depraved of stimuli, then your mind will search for a big jolt of it, and almost all men get a huge jolt out of combat and illegal activity.

The best way to educate people is to develop their cognitive capabilities. If you give them facts and dates, you'll only bore the hell out of them. However, if you have them use their brain and challenge their ways of thinking while constantly opening them up to new ways of thinking, that is how a person can truly learn and become "intelligent".

 

[THAC0]

when i was a kid, my parents HATED video games. And they HATED the fact that i liked them. Being an only child in the middle of nowhere, they couldn't understand why i couldn't find something more entertaining.

So, my mom came up with this idea that i had to read a book each day before i could play video games. It actually wasn't that bad (much to her dismay). I would read my book for about half an hour then happily play video games the rest of the day.

 

[theevilsanta]

The real question is what are kids gaining by loving to read? Sure it's a great hobby but the simple act of reading a lot isn't going to make you any more of a better person than just staring at a wall. Most people that read recreationally read fiction stories written by James Patterson or Jim Butcher and certainly don't involve any learning or self improvement, it's just fun.

Reading is a conduit for expressing information, just like the internet and games and film and tv and whatever. It's the content that counts, not the form in which the information is presented.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Fucking idiotic. "Let's get boys really, mind-numbingly bored. Surely nothing bad can result from that!"

Fuck reading, let's go burn shit

Hey, I'll have you know some people enjoy both reading for pleasure and arson.

Still, my point was there are 3 types of bored kid - the whiny little shit, the destructive little shit and the elusive 'kid who makes their own fun'. Deprive a kid of entertainment and they're not going to start reading if they don't already enjoy it, they're going to whine to you about how bored they are, they're going to make trouble, they're going to find something else to keep them occupied... they're probably going to do anything except read and half of it will drive parents batshit.

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

I always loved/ will love reading. It's true, my parents occasionally with-held my gameboy until I read, but typically I couldn't be asked to put a book down if I was into it.

As for those "pandering gross-out" books... whatever gets them interested. An intriguing topic, or a sense of humor that appeals to young boys, offers a great gateway into reading that will mature as they do.

Whoever proposed this is probably very old, and wants things done a certain way (their way). Not to generalize or anything.

 

[mattttherman3]

I hated reading, until I was forced to for a book report, now I won't read everything, but the only book I have ever hated was Macbeth. They just need to find something interesting to read.

 

[Angryman101]

I never said there was anything wrong with reading, hell sometimes I prefer a book over movies or games. All I was saying is that in quite a few cases the message of a book can be said through some other form of entertainment. Also I wasn't really comparing them, the idea of this thread just irritates me a little since my parents literally forced me to read when I was a kid by taking away everything except a book of their choosing and it didn't work in the slightest.

I didn't imply that you said that there was something wrong with reading. And yes, you were indirectly comparing the two.
While pop books like Harry Potter and Twilight may be comparable to games in that they are inherently narrative driven without more meaningful themes, more grounded and classic literature cannot be likened to any modern electronic entertainment medium (unless it's an e-book, I suppose).
That's not a very effective parenting method. What they should have done is, instead of making you feel like you were being punished for reading, make it an ends to a means to instill it's value within you. Reading's inherent worth and entertainment value can be gleaned somewhat later in life.

 

[Cogwheel]

This is ridiculous, yes. And honestly, if you don't read? Your loss. Being forced to read ruins the fun of it - I would instead suggest some books to suit the tastes of whoever I'm speaking to (and Discworld whether it's relevant or not), in the hope of getting them into reading.

That, or Planescape: Torment. That game is clearly a novel in disguise.

 

[Direwolf750]

I've always both read, and played video games. I attribute my vocabulary about equally to both. It is stupid to deprive someone of games that can stimulate their intellect on the sole premise of it being a game...