Why all the hype over "My child is so advanced" trend? Seems to be the bugle call of most parents nowadays. And that's exactly why children don't want to read nowadays. At least one of the reasons. Everything has to be advanced. Everything has to be a challenge. Everthing has to be up-graded.
Goodness! isn't life complicated enough without funneling books down their neural tube? Let's lighten up a bit. Let's paint our children's hearts with beauty and color. This isn't an argument for dumbing down or building up. It's an argument for touching our children's hearts with the first things that came out of our mouths and into their ears...Words!
I didn't read the Bronte's until I was in my late 20's and didn't understand Jane Austen until I was 39-yrs-old. How about them bookbinders? Had someone put those authors under the microscope for me when I was ten or twenty, I'd probably be sick and tired of them today. Go have tea with someone else, ladies. I'm drinking eggnog with Patricia Polacco and Jan Brett today.
The fact is my life isn't over yet and I'm enjoying Bronte and Austen---as well as Patricia Polacco and Jan Brett---immensely today. Tea anyone?
I'm with Sarah...
"Aside from the sticky matter of content, what's up with always needing to "challenge" these advanced little folks? I'm betting most of their mommies and daddies aren't wandering into the grown-up section thinking to themselves, 'To heck with John Grisham, I want a challenge!" or "Wouldn't Dante make a nice stocking stuffer for Aunt Louise?'
"For Pete's sake, let 'em have a little fun with a Magic Treehouse book, even if it's only good for 30 minutes -- coincidentally the same amount of time it takes to watch a TV show. If you want kids to love reading, don't dose them with books like they're medicine, or pile them on like they're weights on a bench press. Kick back, open a book, and relax. Sheesh."
Amen!
Someone finally had the bookmarks enough to say it the way it is. This theory butterflies nicely with my reasoning and belief in A Picture Perfect Childhood.
Amen.........sistah!!!
Posted by: marcie | December 19, 2007 at 06:10 PM
Another big consideration is presentation. For example, we just read Dicken's Christmas Carol, which has some pretty difficult language, out loud and rather dramatically and had a blast - my kids all loved it (down to the seven year old). But my kids probably would have hated if I just handed it to them as required reading (and certainly the seven year old would never have read it).
We've also found that watching a movie about a book can get us interested enough to WANT to read a challenging book (even though watching the movie first is generally taboo).
This topic also reminds me of a quote I really enjoyed by Fr. Schall (in "Another Sort of Learning") that's somewhat related to your post. In a chapter about "Grades" he basically argues against their importance:
"If to get a good grade a student reads St. Augustine - well, terrific. But I am also impressed by someone who reads St. Augustine and gets a D-, but who five or twenty-five years later is still reading him. It takes all one's life to read St. Augustine, so the first dozen times through probably deserve a D- anyhow."
Posted by: Love2learn Mom | December 20, 2007 at 08:52 AM
P.S. My kids love Magic Treehouse too.
Posted by: Love2learn Mom | December 20, 2007 at 08:53 AM
I really enjoyed this!
I've met a handful of people in my life who really were "advanced" (one of them the kid who taught himself to read at age 2, and his mom didn't know till the pediatrician caught the kid reading). THAT's advanced. It's also a huge challenge, because people who are that smart often find it difficult to integrate into the everyday world.
I think the vast majority of parents who use the word use it in one of two ways: one, as a nice, polite shortcut when faced with a pushy salesclerk or slightly clueless relative who wants to hand their child the latest book by some author whose books aren't welcome in their homes (from Pullman down to the vulgar sort of kiddie books that always seem to crop up). It seems nicer to say, "Oh, Johnny's really too "advanced" for that book," than to say, "I'm sorry, but we don't allow books in our home that feature the adventures of an animated booger, or whose characters try to kill God. Thanks anyway!"
The second way, of course, is when they really think their child is "advanced," but "advanced" means "doing better than X who is his age," and "X" can be anyone from generic public or private school students to the bratty kid across the street to the child of a relative. This is a temptation I admit to having as a homeschooler, sometimes.
Posted by: Red Cardigan | December 23, 2007 at 06:16 PM
Excellent points, Red.
I have to say I think the tempatation extends past "homeschoolers" though. :) I think just as "parents" were can all admit to having been temptated to think our children are more advanced, brighter, nicer, sweeter, prettier, etc.
But I do know what you mean. :)
Posted by: Cay | December 23, 2007 at 06:36 PM