Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
It's not that something is difficult that's the problem. It's that it's useless. When are kids ever going to need to know how to read the version of English that Shakespeare wrote in? Never. I had to deal with Shakespeare in school and I've never wanted to go back after. It wasn't fun. It wasn't relevant. It was just a waste of time and effort.
Give kids something difficult that will give them useful skills and that's good. Give them something difficult that's not going to give them useful skills and that's a waste of time and effort. Being able to read Shakespeare is not useful.
Also, reading books that have no relevance because they are too old and outdated in the way they were written is a poor way to get kids interested in reading. A good example of a poor book is The Canterbury Tales. Outdated, not relevant and just plain boring. making kids dissect such an outdated work is not going to help the kids learn and it's not going to help them want to read.
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That's a rather narrow, utilitarian way of seeing the world. Great if that is how you like life, but the world is not that simple.
Firstly, the content of our learning is often less important than the fact that we are learning. Brains develop through exercise. I don't use my primary school knowledge of earthworms or geometry, but the very act of learning, being disciplined, understanding complexity, processing different kinds of information etc. are all important in my life. In my life and work, I need to process information, follow a narrative, make connections between different kinds of information etc. and the fact that I am practiced and competent is due to learning all kinds of things that I don't really use now. That is the same for reading. The act of reading helps our brain develop in ways that are important later: following a story-line, remembering characters, following and figuring out the plot, questioning our assumptions, being challenged about society etc.
Secondly, I didn't read to learn as a child. I read because I loved it. There were worlds I could go into, in my head. Despite a complicated home life, I was probably one of the happiest children in my small world, because I had somewhere to escape. Reading is,
hands down, the most important factor that kept me in school and away from the other crazy stuff that everyone else in my family and school were into. I was reading all kinds of things: plays by Shakespeare, poetry by Tennyson, cheesy Mills & Boon novels, and lots of Archie comics, and they all offered something different to me that I cherish now.