Parlor Spider...Step In, Little Fly

Insightful thoughts and/or rants from atop the soapbox from one who wishes to share the "right" opinion with everyone.

Monday, May 05, 2008

What U.S. Grant Can Teach You

In 2007, 3.1 million children read 78.5 million books, according to the Renaissance Learning web site. In a recent report, the company released information concerning the reading habits of children throughout the United States; While the report is longer than your average 3rd-grade book (56 pages), it does list some interesting and potentially startling results.
In order to monitor the reading habits of America's children, Renaissance Accelerated Reader software is installed in more than 63,000 schools nationwide. (yes, it is a for-profit organization so you can adjust your belief in what it reports accordingly). Children take surveys following completion of a book, and the tomes are measured for word and sentence length to gauge suitability. I'm not going to give them any more publicity (unless they pay me) so on with some results.
As one might expect, the average 7th grader last year read 7.1 books. In contrast, the average 12th grader read a mere 4.5 books. This is where I start to get steamed. Why do younger children read and older ones do not? Internet? MTV? Internet porn? real sex? Have they become so inured to reading by being "forced" to read that, when given the opportunity, they choose not to do so? Are their lives so much more active that they simply do not have enough time to read? U.S. Grant led the Union troops during the Civil War and was later elected President of the U.S. and HE found time to read AT LEAST 50 PAGES A DAY! This fact is all the more astounding since J.K Rowling had not been born and comic books...oops...graphic novels had not been invented (the first comic book was almost 100 years in the future), "American Idol" was still "American Idle," and nobody had a car, a moped or a skateboard, either. Running a war and/or a country was probably a fairly busy job. Still, he found the time.
Anyhow, here's a list of the favorite books by grade level. The study broke it down by gender and section of the country as well, and if you want to wade through all 56 pages, you can find that out for yourself...since YOU still read!

1st grade favorite: "Green Eggs and Ham"
2nd grade favorite: "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." ??
3rd grade favorite: "Charlotte's Web" (I saw the movie)
4th grade favorite: "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" (I could have written that most of the way through school!)
5th grade favorite: "Bridge to Terabithia" something about kids and a magical kingdom. Fantasy is OK at this level, I think.
6th grade favorite: "Hatchett" (a boy stranded in the wilderness...pretty good!)
7th-8th grade favorite: "The Outsiders" (Do teachers still require this book? I know we did at one time at my school) "Speak" is a much better choice for this age group, I think.
9th-12th grade favorite: "To Kill A Mockingbird" (I suspect this one is a required text as well, but a super good read) One comment about this book is that it really teaches readers that life is NOT a fairy tale, and there are definitely bad people out there. Still, it's no "Catcher in the Rye" for my money.

As a side note, #5 on the high school list was "A Child Called It" by Dave Pelzer, a story of serious child abuse and far too shocking for some people though I recommend it heartily.

The Harry Potter books made the top 20 usually, but it was interesting to see that none of them topped the charts. However, their influence on readers was immense, in spite of Dumbledore being outed eventually. They got kids to read, and that's what it's all about. My grandson loves The Boxcar Children series as a first-grader (no crappy breakfast food books for him!), and I feel certain that he will carry that love of reading with him all his life. Kudos to his parents who read to him every single day of his life until he could read for himself (he's a genius, you know)and continue to find interesting things for him to read.
Come on, people, if Ulysses S. Grant can do it, we can, too. I'm reaching for a Doc Savage adventure even as I write. Sleep? As Warren Zevon said, "I'll sleep when I'm dead."
Of course, he's currently experiencing the "Big Sleep" (look this reference up).
Don't go to the movies this week to see "Iron Man." READ IT!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home