Kids and books WAS: Re: Bard of Avon

[Carol]

Potioncat wrote:
> It's not that easy. I think we are wired to enjoy reading or not. <snip>

> So, I would not put it on the parents if a child is not a reader. So
often folks get into a battle over Nature vrs Nurture, but I think how
a kid turns out is a combination of Nature and Nurture.

Carol responds:

I agree. My sister and I, just fourteen months apart, had a virtually
identical upbringing, went to the same schools, and had many of the
same teachers. My parents gave us storybooks, but I can't remember
being read to, only curling up with "chapter books" like the Bobbsey
Twins books and wanting more, more, more. I loved going to the
library, finding a series that I loved, finishing the series, and
finding a new one. When I'd read every kids' book I could find, I went
to the new historical novels with the beautiful, shiny covers and read
them. I also read every book on my parents' bookshelves, some ot them
so many times that my parents became concerned. I read the newspaper
and the magazines my parents subscribed to cover to cover. While I was
indoors reading (or writing novels that I kept under my pillow and
didn't want anyone to read), my sister was outside riding her bike or
playing softball with the neighborhood boys. She was younger, but I
learned to ride *her* bike when I was nine!) My brother had the whole
collection of Oz books. I don't know whether he ever read them, but I
read them all.

Some of it is nurture and example--and, of course, the books have to
be available--but a lot of it is the child's own personality and
inclinations.

These days, of course, kids have the temptation not only of TV but of
computers. Everything has to be "fun" and "hands on." We played with
Tinker Toys and modeling clay and dolls that cried or said "Mma" if
they said anything at all. We also played family games. We had to
entertain ourselves (when we weren't doing homework). These days, the
kids I know are bored if they can't play video games or watch TV or
play a DVD. Sure, they can take a walk, but they aren't interested in
puzzles, board games, or books. Part of it is the temptation of
technology, part of it is the example of parents, part of it is peer
pressure, part of it, maybe, is the schools. All I know is that, aside
from my two-year-old grandniece, only one kid of my acquaintance (my
seventeen-year-old niece) is a book lover. And even she gave up on the
Harry Potter books a few years ago after the third or fourth one. Why,
I don't know. she just said that she wasn't interested. (Then, again,
she was on the softball team and in both band and orchestra, so maybe
she didn't have time to read for fun!)

Carol, who thinks that computers have also had a corrosive effect on
spelling and handwriting (and calculators on the ability to do simple
math)