Quote:
Originally Posted by crich70
I don't think that it's a matter of parent's not caring Harmon. More like it's a matter of not having the time because it takes two incomes coming in to keep food on the table and a roof over the families head. Government is supposed to be 'of the people, by the people and for the people' but it seems more and more like it's 'of the rich, by the rich and for the rich' instead. That mentality filters down in many different ways. I think that's why so many go for a TV rather than books too. It's a one time expense to buy the actual TV set and you get 100's of hrs of entertainment in return (or at least you used to) and books only have the one thing in them and pbooks don't come in a big package of several 100 for one low price. That's one way ebooks are better. You can find free or low priced ebooks all around. Anyway there is also stress in not knowing if you will have a roof over your head next month or not, or a filling dinner as well, which can inhibit being able to sit down long enough to read even if you have access to books. And what about all those private libraries that rich men used to put together and then not even cut the pages of a single book in order to read it? They had the $$ and presumably the time to read, but didn't. Meanwhile poor men (and women) did read and they went on to invent the tools that led to our modern world today.
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I think that your description of the situation is pretty accurate.
But I don't accept the implication that parents just can't do anything about it. I think that they have a choice, and the choice is to let the schools and teachers take care of it all. Nobody forces them to buy televisions rather than books.
I read an article recently in which the writer described how his mother, who did not know how to read, made sure her kids did learn to read. And she did this without their ever finding out that she was illiterate. If an illiterate mother can make sure her kids can read, I don't want to hear any excuses from or for anyone else.