Some Things Aren’t on Tape

I recently assigned a Charles Dickens novel to my 11th-grade English class. “Is this on Beta?” asked one. “Can I get this at Music Plus?” asked another. “I don’t have time to read this!” wailed a third.

Kids aren’t the only ones who don’t have time to read. I don’t have time for The Times; I give the car radio 22 minutes; it gives me the world.

I’m not alone, either. Back in the ‘50s, evenings were free. Now, Mom and Dad come home, microwave dinner, and still have to take care of the kids. Sure, they can read. But do they? No--instead, they turn on cable TV or rent a videotape. I’d bet money Beaver Cleaver programs his VCR to tape Oprah while he’s stuck on the freeway.

A teen-age student’s harried mother recently came in for a conference with me. “Go play your dinosaur book,” she told her younger daughter. Will the child learn to read from a taped “book” that reads to her? Will she learn how wonderful reading is?

I bet she won’t. Today’s students can watch a movie in class without losing interest, but reading is boring. It requires an attention span that many of them don’t have. It doesn’t come with visual effects, and this generation has never developed the imagination to make it exciting.

Ironically, students can’t read because they don’t read. Reading is slow because they don’t know the words in the books. Nintendo is more fun and requires less effort.

What can I say, then, to parents who look at me sincerely and ask, “Why aren’t our kids interested in reading?” Why should they be? They do fine without reading. Mom and Dad don’t read much, either; they’re doing OK. Is it so bad that many of today’s students will never read as well as their parents?

Why should my teen-age student’s little sister learn to read and write?

Because we can’t memorize. Could I remember 50 things I need at Von’s without writing them down? Are you kidding?

Because we don’t communicate complicated ideas orally--we write them down. That’s why we need technical documentation and contracts.

Because she will be unable to express herself otherwise. When they try to explain ideas to me, my students become frustrated, because they don’t have the vocabulary to make me understand. Kids don’t learn much vocabulary from workbooks--they learn it from context by reading or by participating in conversation with adults.

Because America cannot compete in the 21st Century unless its current schoolchildren have the intellectual ability to lead the way in technology. They cannot learn to engineer the future unless they can read.

So where are these parents who don’t have time for their kids? Out working like crazy to give their kids everything they never had.

Everything?