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March 29, 2009
National Year of Reading Report
Someone has kindly sent me the report on the National Year of Reading. It is long ( 130 pages, 229 paragraphs plus several appendices, comment, articles and many photos)
For the moment I post paragraph 54, (which is where I have got to), without comment
54. Is the term ‘reading’ inclusive? The things young people read tend to be the things that they claim schools and parents discourage. The authors of the report conclude that those who make and influence policy should be cautious about encouraging children to become ‘readers’ in the conventional sense, when many do not see being a ‘reader’ as something desirable.
Read on, I told myself.
Posted by Perkins at March 29, 2009 11:10 AM
Comments
Is there a e-copy of the document?
Send me please if you have the copy.Thank you very much.
jadeboy@gmail.com
Posted by: youyuan at March 29, 2009 3:48 PM
When I'd recovered from my rage at reading the first sentence, I took a deep breath while I considered the rest of the paragraph. The sub-text of this is interesting because it implies that if you have a 'Discovery Centre', fill it with Internet terminals, minimise the number of books, encourage talking, eating and the use of mobile phones, young people will soon realise that they are being actively 'courted' by the local authority, and it will lose its enchantment. What young people want, says the report, is something forbidden. So how about a magnificent building stuffed full of books, where you're not allowed to talk and where it's made clear to young people that it's not 'for them' because it's aimed at people who want to read...... a Library, in fact?
Posted by: Amanda Field at March 30, 2009 9:53 AM