Am I THE Problem?

Response to Lack of Leisure Reading by Ali Swank (in response to The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30) by Mark Bauerlein)


Okay, so I don't completely buy into Bauerlein's theory that technology is ruining America. I don't think he is crazy either. My classmate Ali posted a response to Bauerlein that I COULD NOT ignore. Bauerlein goes to great lengths to talk about the amount of time kids spend "plugged-in" to the screens in their lives. I get how easy it is to point the finger at parents, because I was once one of those parents.


You get the true-life confessional from a mother of two, a reader and a non-reader.


My kids are polar opposites. They come from the same genetic makeup. They were raised in seemingly the exact same way. We read to our kids every night. Individually. I have read Are You My Mother? more times than should be legally allowed. I have read every Dr. Seuss book multiple times to multiple children. We have had bedtime read-alongs for their entire lives. We listen to books on CD. We are regular visitors at the public library. We have been the proud members of Zoo Atlanta and High Museum of Art on alternating years for more than a decade. With family memberships. Only one of my children has a cell phone (which I still don't feel good about it, but it came in handy when she missed the bus). My kids do NOT have televisions in their rooms. We have a family computer in the middle of the dining room. And they only have one gaming system. That they share. (It actually collects dust more than it collects points.) 


One of my kids reads everything. I mean, everything. She reads more books than I can read in a semester. She knows more about literature than most of her peers. But she hates the literary canon (which broke my heart when she refused to finish To Kill A Mockingbird because it was boring). She has finished The Hunger Games Trilogy, the entire Harry Potter series, the complete Twilight saga, and won a trophy for reading more than any other kids in her grade level one year. A trophy for reading. That could have been my sport.

Then there is my other kid. As a school system employee and (hopefully) future teacher, I am always a anxious when people ask about his reading habits. He is nine. He completed third grade with a sixth grade reading level. He HATES really doesn't like to read. I still read to him most nights (go ahead and judge me: some will say he is too old for such while others will say I should do it every night). He feels like it is a waste of time. He gets bored with it. He can't sit still to read for extended periods of time (and he doesn't have ADD), and he prefers not to listen intently while others read. When I read to him, he draws illustrations for the books. Or plays with Hot Wheels while he listens. He loves Claude Monet and knows more about hermit crabs than seemingly possible. He climbs trees and builds elaborate fortresses out of Jenga blocks and Scrabble letters. He writes amazingly complex stories (according to his teacher) with HORRIBLE grammar (as in spelling and punctuation and capitalization). But he doesn't care.

So why doesn't he like to read? Hell if I know! I did everything I thought I was supposed to do, and I still managed to mess up according to some people. If he knows a ton of useless information and writes impressive fiction, how do I get him to read? He would rather climb a tree or learn origami or fly paper airplanes from the upstairs windows. He isn't hanging out with the television and the computer all day, he has been exposed to culture, and he still won't read.  We have tried Geronimo Stilton and Goosebumps and Flat Stanley. We had the most success with Goosebumps, but most of the others don't get more than half read. 


According to Ali's post, I must be partly to blame. 

Why aren’t kids reading? Parents are not making them!–If adults started exercising their parental rights and were actually parents, maybe our youth would be well read. Parents are the ones who buy the fancy technology gadgets and allow their kids to spend countless hours in front of the TV. Parents are the ones who buy the upgraded SUVs for family vacations with the built in TVs to the headrests. Heaven forbid you would have to SPEAK to your child while on an eight hour road trip, or listen to a book on tape, or read an actual book in the car.

If children are raised in a household where reading and cultural activities are cherished and encouraged, they are more likely to pick up a book in their spare time. Instead of parents taking their kids to the latest movie, where they spend an astronomical amount on tickets and junk food, they could spend that money on a membership to a local museum for the year. If we want our kids to be cultured and well read, we have to pursue the proper channels to ensure they are.

I know that Ali is not personally attacking me. I get it. But what happens when I don't buy the fancy tech tools, force the kids to listen to books on CD in the car, partake in annual art museum memberships (and heavily utilize said membership) only to STILL have half of my kids refuse to read? I admit we do enjoy a movie now and then. But not at the expense of cultural exposure. My kids do watch television, but not as a solitary activity.

I can pinpoint when my non-reader became a non-reader. It was in kindergarten. The teacher required him to read in front of the class. And he hated it. Every minute of it. He was reluctant to read to his class for whatever reason. His first grade teacher understood that, and his reading scores increased as did his writing (both skill and enjoyment). His second grade teacher required him to read for Accelerated Reader points. He doesn't do competition, and he doesn't choose his books from a list. His third grade teacher gave up when she realized AR points meant as much to him as the federal deficit. She allowed him to choose something of interest to research. He chose Galileo and hermit crabs. And he searched the web and printed enough information to kill an entire forest. Then stood up and told the class a number of trivial facts about Galileo and hermit crabs.

He won't read a book no matter how much I bribe him. But if you ask him what GTO stands for, he knows without hesitation. Do you?

So is it my fault that he doesn't read? Who can we blame next?