I really enjoyed reading Caleb Cain's article. I found it interesting, well-written, and the topic very intriguing. All of the examples he used to support his claims formed ethos and thus allowed me to believe, and even agree with, what he was saying.
One of my favorite parts of the article was when he discussed the experiment with the literate and illiterate peasants. I found the study itself interesting and the results even more interesting. The direct quote from one of the peasants was funny, and the differing responses were fascinating to see.
The part of the article that shocked me the most was the correlation between age and reading levels. I was surprised to read that elementary school students' reading levels were on the rise while high school students' reading levels were declining. The impact media is having on kids' reading levels may be somewhat differing, but overall the effects are negative. Cain did say that controlling the amount of time kids spend watching television can have positive effects, so I will agree that watching television (with the amount of time depending on the age) can be helpful.
Overall, I found this article very insightful, and I learned a lot.
Savannah, I love that you brought up ethos. That is the best way to describe his delivery of his subject. I also really enjoyed the statistics of the literates to illiterates. I found that to be a great example that helps the reader see how much of an impact reading has on society( and i also loved the direct quote from the peasant).
ReplyDeleteThe decline in reading from elementary students' to high school students' was quite shocking to me as well. I think the decline shows us that obviously high school students' become unmotivated at times. I also agreed with Cain when he said monitoring the amount of television watched would greatly help the lack of reading problem.
The stats on the numbers of books read by each age category struck me also. I had naturally assumed that people would read more as they grew older. The article was one more example of extending your horizon by realizing that people differ greatly from your own circle of friends, not only by politics, religion, and values, but by their attitudes towards reading--a daily activity everyone I know takes for granted.
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