And unlike youtube and tiktok, they cost money and you have to go to bookstore or library to get them. There are no equivalets of kids journals/channels that would promote fun books to kids either.
Schools cant change that. When my generation read, a lot of it was cheap junk with formulaic plot. That was replaced by tiktok. And once that does not exist, the books are not perceived as potential fun for kids. They are just another homework
You did not had to go out of your way to find fun books, they came to you. There was kids journals with mini reviews of books and sometimes asked parents to buy one, because review sounded cool. Kids do not read kids journals either, they watch youtube and no youtube channel recommends books.
But, adults do not read for fun anymore either. The sort of demographics that read dumb books dont read at all. Those who read more sophisticated books watch more sophisticated shows. Basically only people who regularly read are those who are consciously seeking education.
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School libraries do not have pulp novels in them and if they did quite a few parents would call riot. Including people who complain on HN that kids are not assigned <insert whatever novel written for adults dealing with adult relationships that go over kids heads>.
Kids cant go to normal libraries unless someone drives them or accompanies them. And that someone has typically educational goal in mind, so that feeling you can pick pulp/junk and not be judged is not there.
> Also TikTok and YouTube aren’t free FFS, they’re commodifying your data
I dont think kids care about that. Or most of the population, which includes their parents and teachers.
> kids can have book clubs just like adults do I would often hang out and talk to other kids about the books we both enjoyed reading.
Kids don't have book clubs. To be honest, adult book clubs are something I have seen only in the movies. If you organize a book club for kids, it is another educational activity like math club. It can lead to some kids liking reading/math ... but it does not mean there is overall "math is fun" culture existing.
I had New Math somewhere around middle school. Probably the time could have been better used, but it didn't cripple me.
Wow. Wait'll they encounter Genesis, Samuel, Kings, etc.
coffeefirst•1mo ago
In no world would I consider a person who says "it's okay if the next generation is illiterate" an education expert.
And the guy selling excerpts software says there's no data suggesting a deep, unsolvable flaw in his product. Cool.
> Timothy Shanahan, a leading literacy scholar and an author of the StudySync curriculum, said there was no data suggesting that students become stronger readers when they are assigned full novels.
... If anyone is working on reversing this I'd love to hear where you're starting.
add-sub-mul-div•1mo ago
youhatetheleft•1mo ago