Sunday, September 26, 2010

We Have Met the Enemy

...and he is us. The wisdom of Pogo Possum was never more applicable than in this commentary about America's youth and why they are so incredibly stupid and disaffected:

Boogers, Flatulence, and Potty Jokes as Literature

Last semester I asked one of my classes of freshman college students what was the last book they had read which was not a textbook. (I already know that they don't bother reading the textbook.) The answers were disappointing by not surprising. Most of them had no answer at all. They simply don't read. They have never been taught to read. They have never been exposed to interesting literature. They don't view reading as a pleasurable or profitable pastime.

I was fortunate in my education. Reading came naturally to me. My parents encouraged me to read, questioned my about books and topics, challenged me to find out about things I was interested in, and never stood in the way of what my choices might be. When a topic piqued my interest, I read everything I could find in the school library or the Chicago Public Library branch down the street from our apartment.

When I found out about Sgt. Preston of the Yukon, I read all the adventure books about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I dreamed of a red tunic, lanyard secured revolver and Smokey Bear hat.
When I saw my first Lassie movie, I found a dozen books about heroic collies. Fascination with tropical fish and a desire for a more entertaining aquarium than a round globe and a dime store goldfish led to consumption of a dozen books on fresh water tropicals. I could discuss tetras and gouramis and beta splendens with the best of them. Bubbly colored water, smoky concoctions in test tubes and flasks with Bunsen burners led me to chemistry hobbyist books. Airplanes, model trains and trout fishing dreams took me to other areas.

Through it all there was the escapism of fiction. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, Ivanhoe and Lancelot, Long John Silver and Blackbeard were entertaining and fun. By the time I was in the seventh and eighth grade, I was sneaking into the adult stacks and bringing home racier tomes. Best-sellers like Peyton Place and the Caine Mutiny and classic eroticism by Henry Miller and Anais Nin were sandwiched between more acceptable subjects on my dresser top.

But, here is the WSJ telling us that the publishing eggheads believe that putting low-brow crap in front of young men is going to encourage them to read more. Somehow there is no way I can believe that is going to create the next generation of Faulkners and Hemingways.

6 comments:

Murphy's Law said...

Tom Swift and the Hardy Boys would be ashamed. Those are what I started with.

nzgarry said...

Mr Spence is 100% dead right about the effects of computer gaming. Not only reading but other activities suffer as well.
No games for our kids (15,12,10 yrs) during the school week,
but we still have some real battles
over this.

Dweezil Dwarftosser said...

The wife is a Science teacher (with a degree in Environmental Science, and one in Biology; a long-time researcher, she gave up the cutthroat field to teach!).

The first thing she noticed about sixth-graders was that they couldn't read. They had instead been taught to skim for 'important' concepts. (These usually were boldface or italicized in their textbooks . . .)

Her whole schtick was trying to awaken a sense of inquiry in them; to 'think like a scientist',
and puzzle out the source facts from the junk. They were absolutely incapable of noticing anything that didn't jump off the page. (Most of them, anyway.)

I was no stranger to using "Cliff's Notes" to cheat on fully reading some plodding, 18th-century British author's "classic" - but give me Jack London, Poe, or Asimov, and I'd devour every word, and search out more.

Today's kids can't do that; they can't read, even for pleasure. Worse yet, they can't write, either, unless it is in cryptic text-message-speak. U R really SCRWD, kiddo !!

BTW - my enviro-biologist agrees with me: Climate Globaloney is a lot of crap!

Tam said...

nzgarry,

Yah, eye play compyooter gamez and I kan hardlee rite a compleet sentenss.

It's always handier for parents to blame Them Damn [whatevers].

nzgarry said...

Tam,
We dont have a problem with the gaming itself, rather the amount of time it consumes, leading to the exclusion of any other activity.
In fact I prefer them to be gaming rather than watching the bilge we get on television.

Ed Rasimus said...

Imaginative play with a group of age peers in the local greensward is always good. Bats (cricket or baseball), balls (round or ovoid), shoes (spiked or cleated), etc. all lead to healthy bodies and mature problem-solving practice in the real world. Cowboys & indians (pioneers and aborigines?), developed world vs terrorists or other creative imaginative play also is beneficial. Later they can gather to plan car thefts, outhouse upendings, and under-age alcohol purchase strategies.

All better than computer games or TV.