Why do certain kids hate reading?

[bpm195]

I strongly dislike reading novels because it takes be about the same amount of effort to study a college text book as it does to read Harry Potter. As such I find it a tremendous waste of effort to read a novel. I also dislike watching movies and long stretches of television.

Notably at the tender age of 22 I was diagnosed with predominately inattentive ADD which explained a lot of things. While on drugs for it I did pick up books and was a lot more bearable, but after finishing a couple books I just reaffirmed that books were overrated and started learning an instrument instead.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Sounds logical to me so of course it's likely something that the local school board would ignore. There are a ton of interesting books and series out there but I agree: the books that I remember having to read at school were completely uninteresting to me (with one exception: Lord of the Flies). If I had the choice to have read any of the Discworld books or, Hitchhiker's Guide it would have been different for me but no...they were too busy trying to make me give a crap about the Canterberry Tales.

 

[As Seen On 360]

Visual media is too dominant in multiple cultures for books to ever make a comeback as an entertainment giant. For any one notable event in a book that a youth can vaguely remember, they have 100 assorted and random movie/tv/game moments they vividly recall and admire. If books aren't actively promoted by a child's family at a young age, it's very difficult to just jump in at a later date.

I enjoy reading myself, but it's not something I prioritize or value as much as I could. Schools drill the importance of reading which makes education synonymous with boredom to kids. Generally speaking, the first thing you do after a comatose day in classes is typically not gonna be your homework, and books are usually related to that. You drop everything and go wild outside, have fun with friends, see the new big movie (which is heavily glamorized due to marketing, books get little to no exposure to the masses) or play a game.

tl;dr - Unless reading is incorporated early in life, it's not fun, and the only thing a kid cares about is fun. The first day of school they're hyped for next summer, and they're most certainly not planning to spend it curled up in bed reading themselves to sleep.

 

[him over there]

Mostly because of difficulty, lack of exposure and other things like gaming and the internet being more enticing. Personally I like reading, it makes me feel weird though and I can't explain why. Probably because I can't piece together visuals in my head very well based on words. It's just a jumbled mess, like a ball of blur.

Another thing is that people generally take in, experience and learn in one of three different ways. Auditory, visual and kinaesthetic. Almost everyone in my resource class is kinaesthetic, me and one other person are visual learners and we only have one auditory learner. Books naturally appeal only to visual learners plus most people at least I know say hearing a narrative feels weird and they can't stand descriptions or narration. Probably why they choose films over books.

What's the big deal though? Why does it matter? People don't like books for one reason or another. it doesn't mean reading as a whole will collapse and usher in a society incapable of communication without speech.

 

[tthor]

I actually read a theory on this recently. A child's interest in reading is generally tied to their linguistics level, which is largely tied to how much their parents etc talk to them. So in poorer families, where the parents are much more busy working, they can't spend as much time with their young children, so their children develop weaker linguistic skills, and thus feel less interest in reading.
I think I summarized it correctly..

 

[ottenni]

Reading involves sitting down. Why sit down when you could be outside running around catching bugs and stuff. At least that's how i remember it from when i was a kid. When i say kid i mean under the age of 12, after that i starting reading allot. Anyway the point is that kids who dont want to read probably have something they would rather be doing. I know id rather be off doing something as opposed to reading about it.

 

[Kennetic]

Not everyone likes reading. I personally love reading but I can understand if others don't

 

[Orks da best]

Hello there, I got this idea from another topic by trezu (I hope i don't rip you off to much man ) I am a 17 year old high school student and I came up with a reason why kids today aren't a fan of reading. This is just my personal opinion, but I think it's because schools try to force books that kids have no interest for down their throats too often.

I am of this group of people. I've had to read quite a few books I either disliked completely or just wasn't interested in. If more schools let children pick a book they might enjoy reading, they could grow to love it.

Me personally, i'm of the sort who has to be VERY convinced in order to read anything that's not a comic book or graphic novel. Even then, i recently fell in love with the Dresden Files series.

If I knew about this series earlier those book reports may have been more bearable . I think that kids (by kids i mean like ages 12-18 xD)should give reading a chance. Have a look at your taste in films or video games and look for books that match those tastes.

So Escapist, since I know a lot of highschool kids and even younger are on here, what books made you like reading?

EDIT: I may need to clarify a bit more to the people who talked about "You didn't have a library in school?" or "You weren't read to as a young kid?" I was mainly talking about the fact that sometimes schools can drive kids away from reading. Yes they may have been
read to and so forth. I mean picking up a book and reading it of their own free will...normally when kids read a book it's a "classic" (Not knockin' classics Sherlock Holmes ftw) that are either "Too old" for kids or they just don't care about the setting or characters. When they aren't reading those and they hate it. I doubt they'd be inclined to go to a library where many "Scary" books are.

Hooray! someone gets it forceing a kid to read a book does not make them like reading if anything its makes them hate it, I don't care if the book is called a classic or its your favorite let a kid what he wants to so he will learn to love reading rather then hate it.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

Dresden Files? Overrated (trollface.jpg)

But I think that's part of the problem. Life has gotten a great deal more exciting in the passed 20 years, and there is a lot to do if you're bored.

Sitting down to read a book takes a long time. You could just as easily not be reading a book and playing videogames, or facebooking, or drugs. Getting lost in the world of a book when you could just as easily be running over hookers and joining the dark side really is hard to do for some of these kids.

Edit: And a good deal of the books these kids are forced to read are literally the most unimaginative pieces of crap I've ever had to read. If you can make it through Heart of Darkness without turning to Sparknotes, you're a fucking superhero.

 

[Alssadar]

I used to be bored with my time, and turned into depression due to lack of friends.
And then I played Star Wars Republic Commando. After beating the game for the second time, I found the back of the manual saying "Oh, hey, there's a book." So I'm all "Why not?"
And then, two more books... I find a friend who likes WH40k, and start buying those...find Starcraft and Warcraft books in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi, and now they're all mine. And then I realized how pitiful my complaints about society were when I could be a clone/conscript fighting for some cause to only save my brothers with no possible end in sight, so I began looking better upon life.

I thank you video games for making more literature-astute and changing my life in the enventual.

 

[Jodah]

Most of them don't hate reading. They hate being FORCED to read. I love reading and I have for most of my life. However, I absolutely hated reading the "classics" many of which are terribly written. They are important for what they did at the time but 20-50-100 years later much of that meaning is lost and the writing style becomes very dry. That's not to say they are worthless but reading them for 8 years straight without any "new" works it becomes tedious.

If kids were allowed to choose what they want to read and didn't have a strictly enforced timeline I feel interest in reading would skyrocket.

 

[LostSoulInTheOcean]

Perhaps it is because children these days are more interested in movies and television than in written word. Since movies and television do not require them to use their imagination it seems more appealing to the current generation. Or it could be children are not learning to even read when most information can be gained from visual providers and American schools are pushing children through their classes without teaching them how to read.

 

[Berithil]

My theory? It's because reading makes you actually think. Reading any type of books that don't containing pictures is intellectually stimulating. Think about it. When you read, your mind fills in the gaps and puts pictures to descriptions. Have you tried to read with your brain switched off? A lot of kids nowadays don't like that. They like to sit in front of a tv or computer and switch off their brain. And this is coming from a big gamer. I've always loved reading. Of course, this is just my theory. That and an overall lack of focus and a "i want to be entertained now" attitude.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

I'm just too busy, honestly. Every week, I already have to read +200 pages of POSTMODERN BULLSHIT JESUS CHRIST THEY WROTE THIS TERRIBLY ON PURPOSE! Seriously, these people won awards for how bad they wrote. I just-
*ahem*

Are you an editor or... ?

As for me, although I really don't spend very much time, if at all, reading, I really do love it. It could replace video games for me. Probably not that effectively but there you go. The thing though is that the brunt of my reading is done on the internetz reading articles and top 10 lists and forums and the like.

 

[Vault101]

Dresden Files? Overrated (trollface.jpg)

But I think that's part of the problem. Life has gotten a great deal more exciting in the passed 20 years, and there is a lot to do if you're bored.

Sitting down to read a book takes a long time. You could just as easily not be reading a book and playing videogames, or facebooking, or drugs. Getting lost in the world of a book when you could just as easily be running over hookers and joining the dark side really is hard to do for some of these kids.

Edit: And a good deal of the books these kids are forced to read are literally the most unimaginative pieces of crap I've ever had to read. If you can make it through Heart of Darkness without turning to Sparknotes, you're a fucking superhero.

to a kid I supose movies/TV/video games are more stmulating and easyer to get into

but books have their own advantages, not ony because you can fit in alot more detail (like usually when you watch a film adapation your always thinking of the stuff they miss)but also they are cost effective for the amount of content your getting vs price (depending on how long it is)

and theres just somthing relaxing about it, especially when the book is good

I think people are correct in that as a kid who isnt already pre-disposed to it...being forced to rread boring tedious books will put you off

 

[Vault101]

Perhaps it is because children these days are more interested in movies and television than in written word. Since movies and television do not require them to use their imagination it seems more appealing to the current generation. Or it could be children are not learning to even read when most information can be gained from visual providers and American schools are pushing children through their classes without teaching them how to read.

My theory? It's because reading makes you actually think. Reading any type of books that don't containing pictures is intellectually stimulating. Think about it. When you read, your mind fills in the gaps and puts pictures to descriptions. Have you tried to read with your brain switched off? A lot of kids nowadays don't like that. They like to sit in front of a tv or computer and switch off their brain. And this is coming from a big gamer. I've always loved reading. Of course, this is just my theory. That and an overall lack of focus and a "i want to be entertained now" attitude.

I dont think the "them kids today!!" thing is enitrly fair

I mean ok, I can get behined the Idea that perhaps our fast paced, insntant stimulating aproach to entertainment may have an effect

but I also think "we must get the children to READ!!!" thing has been around for a long time (as with movies/TV) and some have always enjoyed reading, some havnt..and kids still read today, even if it is shitty vampire books

I mean seriously would you rather try and struggle through lord of the rings or some artsy thing your teach is telling you read..or play an epic fantasy game? (dont get me started on that fucking book)

I think liek any medium finding the right stuff is the main thing..like when somon says hey dont liek gaming you'll often recomend them somthing good wont you?

 

[Macgyvercas]

If the schools didn't force it, most of those kids would never get some damn culture. I didn't like it when I was forced to read books I was uniterested in, but now I'm thankful for it.

Personally, I think all schools should have as required reading a list that includes Poe, Carroll, Dickens, Tolkien, Doyle, White, Wells, Orwell, Dumas, and a bunch of other authors that nobody I work with at Walmart have ever heard of.

 

[KingGolem]

While there may certainly be a component of what you said, I think the foremost reason kids often hate reading is because reading a book requires more active intellectual investment than most other media. One can just sit back and watch TV or a movie without doing anything at all, but to read a book you must actively and attentively focus on the words in order to comprehend what you're seeing. Further, books tend to provide no visual feedback, so for children raised on visual media, text can be very un-engaging.

I like your idea, though, of having children pick their own book to read, maybe just a few times right around that 10-12 bracket to nurture an appreciation of reading in them.

 

[imagremlin]

Getting a kid to love books is a labour of love. It takes years.

I started with my kid when he was just one year old. I read to him every night, can't be a chore, you have to like it. But more important, I got him involved. I made little performances to spice things up. See, you don't have to be Robin Williams, your kid will love it nonetheless.

We used picture-gram books, you know those that go "There once was a little (picture of a monster) who lived in...". He's supposed to say "Monster". We read the same book for many nights, and he learned substantial portions of it. Then he stared "reading" it to me. Moving his finger along and repeating the words... then I got to say "Monster".

I started to actually teach him how to read in Spanish one year before he got in school. I used the same book I had learned with as a kid.

By the time he got to school, could read fluently in Spanish, and picked up English lightning fast. Quickly, he was at Dr Seuss level, among the top of the class. We also gave him a sense of ownership over the books, allowing him to choose which ones to buy and letting him take it home. This reinforced the love for the media. He read Dr Seuss for a couple of years, every night. According to the School, his reading level was comparable to kids two or three years older than him.

The final transition happened when he was about eight. Having outgrown Dr Seuss I had to find something to keep him going. I got him this "39 Clues" novel, which is quite substantial. This is a real (200+ pages, no pictures) book, but aimed at kids. He was a bit scared at first, but I started reading in parallell so we could discuss what was happening. After that he was on his own.

To give you an idea of how successful this has been, he recently blazed through the thickest books in the Harry Potter series, in about a week. He's nine now. Sometimes I have to force him to put the book down because its a school night! Left on his own, he'll read until 1 or 2 AM.

 

[Gottesstrafe]

Kids don't hate reading, they've just switched mediums. As more and more households acquire computers with access to the internet, kids are being indoctrinated in and accustomed to instantaneous global communication at younger ages. They've traded in Shakespeare, Dickens, and Marlowe for blogs, Wikipedia, and social networking services like Facebook. Cramming the themes and motifs of Hamlet in three hours have given way to quick google searches and wikipedia telling you everything you need to know in less than three minutes, giving you plenty of time left over to do something more relevant to YOUR life. Something like, say, watching a Belgian steroid junkie kicking a cute little baby?