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/lit/ - Literature

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4021317 No.4021317 [Reply] [Original]

The NEA comissioned a report on how little Americans are reading a while back.

http://www.nea.gov/research/ToRead.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/arts/19nea.html?_r=0
>Harry Potter, James Patterson and Oprah Winfrey’s book club aside, Americans — particularly young Americans — appear to be reading less for fun, and as that happens, their reading test scores are declining. At the same time, performance in other academic disciplines like math and science is dipping for students whose access to books is limited, and employers are rating workers deficient in basic writing skills.

There's some gaps with its research and how hesitant they are to recognize digital and computer reading as valid reading and all that jazz but just from skimming it through there's some interesting stuff in it. Literary readers are better civic engagers and volunteer and they guess it might be because readers are better empathizers, which I wholeheartedly dismiss given how many of you are complete bitches. It quotes Postman so that's the general tone of it.

>> No.4021326

The way that paragraph is phrased is misleading. It's not that all Americans are reading less, it's that a larger segment of the population is no longer reading very much. This is the result of the stratification of society, as larger segments of the population become poorer and more uneducated. It's not the top 20% of earners that aren't reading as much, it's people at the bottom of the ladder, and there are more people are at the bottom. The solution is to lower taxes and boost the minimum wage by several dollars at least, which will squeeze hoarded capital from companies while moderating any (inevitable) capital flight, and will rejuvenate the middle class.

>> No.4021346

Maybe this wouldn't be a problem if we stopped teaching books like the fucking Kite Runner in high schools. 50 years ago kids in public schools were studying Hellenistic playwrights, and now they read The Help. And of course this all becomes an obscene cycle, with each new generation dumbing things down a little more under a banner that reads: "Any Reading Is Good Reading."

Weep for America.

>> No.4021355

>The new report is likely to provoke as much debate as the previous one. Stephen Krashen, a professor emeritus of education at the University of Southern California, said that based on his analysis of other data, reading was not on the decline. He added that the endowment appeared to be exaggerating the decline in reading scores and said that according to federal education statistics, the bulk of decreases in 12th-grade reading scores had occurred in the early 1990s, and that compared with 1994 average reading scores in 2005 were only one point lower.

The headline should read "National Endowment for the Arts Scaremongers in Desperate Attempt to Gain Increase in Annual Funding".

>> No.4021359

>>4021346
go to bed /pol/

>> No.4021367

>>4021346
this. Kids should be reading the classics not a bunch of social justice warrior bullshit

>> No.4021382

>>4021359
>>4021359
Actually, I didn't really mean to point a finger at social justice activism; those two titles simply leapt to mind as simplistic, badly written novels which have taken the place of classics in public school curricula. However, it's absolutely true that the professional class in this country has a major problem with ascribing worth to literature simply because it deals with topical social justice issues.

>> No.4021401

>>4021382
>>4021367
go to bed /pol/

>> No.4021409
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4021409

>>4021401
Wake up.

>> No.4021564

>>4021401
>someone supports reading something other than white guilt novels
>FUCKING NAZI

>> No.4021589

>>4021326
>boost the minimum wage
Stopped reading there.

>> No.4021596

>>4021401
kite runner was shit though

As I Lay Dying has the same amount of tumblrwankery as either of those shitty novels except it's a hell of a lot better. But tumblrcunts don't actually read because they weren't provided actual literature in school so Faulkner and the like goes over their heads.

Why do supposed advocates of critical theory not actually think critically

>> No.4021599

>>4021589
boost the minimum wage =/= raise the minimum wage via federal legislation =/= let that be the only bill we pass in regards to the economy

dingus