This week Amy McLaughlin takes a look at what she feels has become a forgotten pastime in this modern world of multimedia technologies.
Shouldn't every house have a book shelf instead of a TV screen? Sadly this is not the case. A countless number of teenagers go home and instead of reading a good book, throw themselves at the mercy of the soul sucking, brain washing TV, which hours later has the teenager walking to bed like a mindless zombie.
The parents of these teenagers then spend several hours a day complaining about how their children spend their time after school. Has anyone thought to ask why their child is more interested in staring blankly at a box rather than reading an amazing book brimming with adventure and imagination the likes of which TV producers could only dream of projecting into silly films and TV series?
In my own opinion I feel it may have something to do with schools. As a book fanatic myself I find it amazing when I recount the many times I have literally been yelled at for reading a book.
I feel schools have begun to regard books the same way as they would a mobile phone or MP3 player. They see them as a distraction; an annoying thing that just steals their pupil's attention from them.
Maybe I'm being way too hard on schools. They are not all that bad when it comes to books. One day a year they will generally set aside a whole 45 minutes where students are allowed to take out a book and read, but even then the students who want to read spend most of the time trying to get enough peace to do so from other students. You just can't win!
Does anyone else agree that something major needs to be done before the future generation look like they've just jumped out of a Resident Evil video game?
About the article
This story was produced by Amy McLaughlin and edited by Rebecca Burns. It was published on the Reach for the Sky website.
