Aditi Panda
With technology encroaching space in all the facets of our children there reading habits also have to put up with its mayhem. Today the children, especially in their teens have a tight schedule which leaves very less time for leisure. Reading for fun has become a past as a barrage of school books and tuitions has reduced their gusto to read.
Now a day’s the pressure of academics has been escalating rapidly. Another nexus is the technological accessibility to easy information that makes the teenagers circumvent reading. The kids on the block depend on their phones to amusing themselves in the free time rather in reading.
Sujit Mahapatra, who heads BAKUL, a national award winning library in Bhubaneswar shares his perspective. ‘The children have not grown up seeing their parents reading and so do not get inclined to reading for fun. There is no peer pressure either. The literate public is not the reading public. Today’s smart children’s reading is limited to their smart phones. Technically reading has increased but not of a serious nature. The irony is that the people who are able to read have increased but who actually read has decreased over the years.
Maybe a good technique to persuade the teenagers to read is by starting a book club where books are read through shared reading and later discussed in a friendly setting. ’The academic pressure and the extra burden of competition, extracurricular activities in school hardly leaves any time for the children to read as a hobby. They avoid reading because they are reading all the time for exams, tests and project work. The academic pressure has to lessen if we want them to read for fun,’says Bandini Ray, mother of two children.
‘Reading habit is dwindling, that’s a hard fact. But who is to blame for that? Certainly not the children! I would put the onus squarely on the parents and writers. The parents are so obsessed with grades that they feel the only reading that has to be done is to be confined to the curriculum. The concept of reading for pleasure seems to have almost disappeared. As a result from a very young age children are encouraged to stick to the syllabus. The parents should realise that the flowering of creativity and imagination is as important as scrounging for marks’, says Ramendra Kumar, Award winning children’s writer.
He adds,’ we writers should also accept that ‘The times are changing. The kids of today are far more smart, savvy and cool. They need stories set in the ‘here and now’ not once upon a time. They want tales which will grip the imagination, kindle their curiosity and connect with them. If parents and authors wake up I am sure we can lure the children back from the world of gizmos and gadgets to the planet of stories.
As adults let’s make an effort to encourage our genre next to spend some time on reading books and enrich their intellect.
(Aditi is a freelance writer and pursues interest in the area of social issues)
I agree that the child should be exposed to different genres to arouse his/ her interest towards books. And also parents should take up the responsibility to see that the child develops interest in books and allow some time to read for pleasure.
Parents and teachers play a very imp role to inculcate this reading habit
While we can’t wish away smart phones and other gizmos from children,some amount of goading and enticing by parents can help bring children back to books.But he moot question is how much time do we , as parents ,spend in reading books.
You are right totallyas children ape the elders
I LOVE BOOKS!! I always have and I always will. So do my father and my brother. We are all book lovers. In fact, I recently read an amazing book of Sidney Sheldon. That was so full of suspense that I sat for 7 hours straight and completed that entire novel. It literally gave me the goosebumps. But yes, I would agree that not all genres appeal to me. I do not like romantic books at all…but I would die for a book full of suspense, thrill, adventure, etc.
And yes most of my friends actually do not read but there is still a small population amongst us teenagers who would give anything to get our hands on a good book and a cup of coffee and some peaceful reading time. 🙂
Agree wth u completely
Children learn from parents. As simple as that . Parents have to imbue values and moral standards, especially during the formative years; that would sustain the child’s growth for years to follow. Reading is one such habit which, if inculcated at the right time, could reap rich dividends in the future. That’s what happened with me. Both my parents liked to read. Mom mostly read vernacular and Dad read non fiction. My sister was a voracious reader and so was my brother. It was but natural for the habit to seep into my psyche. Unfortunately, parents today are not as encouraging or accommodating when it comes to reading outside academics but amazingly lenient when it comes to smart phones and video games which don’t really add much value to one’s intellectual development. I have seen kids huddled around with their cell phones playing some game online or on their Xbox. So without an example to emulate kids only tend to follow their friends and peers. Even ebook readers like Kindle haven’t set the cash registers on fire. So for kids to start reading their parents should first lead by example…. Which is missing
Thanxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx a ton