Monday, November 19, 2007

To Read Or Not To Read

Ouch.

I'm hoping that some math geek will do an interview giving these figures a more positive spin. It could happen.

Or maybe only an English major would think that.

3 comments:

  1. I'm wondering at when I'll have the time to read all 99 pages.

    Some varied thoughts based on the news report:

    My sister has said that sometimes she feels like she's spoiling my neice by ordering 2 or 3 books for her at a pop from the Scholastic ordering thing that goes around her school, because other parents say their kids should just reread the books they have. This is a wealthy community. Needless to say, sis will continue buying the books but we both were a litte surprised at that attitude.

    Employers commenting on reading/writing skills always puzzles me; my High School and English classes, while preparing me to write about fiction and analyze same, did very little to prepare me for any type of business reading or writing (law school did.) Should English teachers be concerned about teaching how to write a business memo? If not, who?

    Why are the pointing to electronic culture as the baddie, as opposed to say kids who are overprogrammed with little time to read outside of what is required for school? And whether or not school reading is about "reading is fun" or is about "preparing you for college or a job."

    I find I don't always "read daily." Yet, I still read a lot, so I'm intrigued what "read daily" is the desireable element.

    Uh oh. Once my comments get this long, I realize I have to post myself. And, I really should read the actual thing.

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  2. As I was reading the news story, I noticed that the report was 99 pages and wondered how many people will actually read it. (I think I've read a govt. report once in my entire life, and it wasn't any 99 pages. In fact, I may have been reading some kind of abstract.) How many people will rely on news accounts for what's in the report? How many reporters will have read the whole thing? How many reporters will be able to make accurate judgments about what they read?

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  3. Those who want to read the full 99 page report can get it from the NEA website

    http://www.arts.gov/news/news07/TRNR.html

    or can just read the 20 page "executive summary"

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