Days of children reading are numbered
Oh dear. As if the global monetary crisis wasn’t enough, here’s some doom and gloom on the literacy front from the UK’s Independent on Sunday newspaper:
Publishers must adapt titles to the demands of modern young readers who spend more time on the internet if they are to succeed in persuading the next generation to read, says Jonathan Douglas, the director of the National Literacy Trust.
He made his remarks as researchers prepared to tell a conference starting today that children’s reading habits slump dramatically after they start at secondary school. The typical eight-year-old reads nearly 16 books a year but, by the time they reach 15 or 16, this has dwindled to just over three books per year. The big drop-off starts after the first year of secondary school, when the number of books read falls from nearly 12 a year to just six.
The study, based on interviews with nearly 30,000 pupils aged seven to 16, also shows a growing trend towards reading comics, magazines, newspapers and online articles, and playing computer games, after the first year at secondary school.
October 12th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I wondered if the researchers went so far as to determine if the amount of homework secondary students are expected to do might factor into that slump. It doesn’t appear so.
October 12th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Someone forgot to tell my kids. They spend plenty of time playing games, watching DVDs and communicating over the ‘net, but are also heavy readers. For example, the 10-year-old just read the John Marsden Tomorrow books (7 of them) back to back in the past month or so.
I agree that reading drops off as kids get older, but that’s because (a) their school workload increases, and (b) they’re assigned a bunch of ‘worthy books’ which are almost guaranteed to turn them off reading for pleasure – especially when added to all the textbooks they have to digest.
Having said that, one of my kids has been assigned Northern Lights, so perhaps things are changing. However, she already finished the whole series two years ago on her own time, so she’s not particularly interested in reading it again.
October 12th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
This is a UK study of course. As soon as I can find a link to the paper I will add it so that we can see the methodology and the rationale. I am not aware of similar studies here in Australia. Perhaps someone knows more? There is no doubt that the amount of ‘real’ schoolwork kids are assigned in secondary school takes precedence over ’slothful’ pursuits as reading for pleasure! Good news about Northern Lights though, Simon.
October 13th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
I would also urge caution in drawing conclusions from this, especially without knowing what questions they asked. I don’t see how there can be any direct causal link between “…modern young readers … spend[ing] more time on the internet…” and a decline in reading on the basis that readers who are younger still (and also spend time on the internet) are the basis for comparison in suggesting a decline. I would also note, as commenters before me, that readers in high school have more homework and are also beginning to get part time jobs, in addition to any other factors affecting reading, such as social expectations including spending time:
‘hanging out with friends’
on the internet, watching tv
playing computer games,
and a general social expectation that all of these pursuits will be more desirable than reading, including news reports of the tragic decline in teen reading, which are practically calculated to encourage teenagers to stop reading.
I personally haven’t seen any evidence of a startling decline in teen reading, at least in the high school where I work.