What are some reasons a high school student might have a lack of interests in reading?

Question

What can be done to change that?

Answer 1

(1) Make sure he knows how to read. A major reason kids don't like to read is because they can't do it well.

(2) Shoot your television.

(3) Get rid of your computer, and exchange it for something 5-8 years old. It will be crap for gaming, but it will do everything a student needs for school.

(4) Take him on supervised trips to the library or book store. Make him pick something up, and make him do a book report on it. If he's got to write about it, he'll have to read it. If he has to read it, eventually he'll learn to pick out something interesting. And if he's interested in it, he'll develop a love of reading about it.

Answer 2

I really don't know what can be done to change this. it is possible that there is some learning disorder or that he just hasn't learned to read well. Certainly there are many distractions such as TV, video games, computers and the like that offer easier and more instant gratification than reading. But I don't believe any of these things causes a lack of interest in reading. My daughter as teen and now as an adult, really enjoys reading. I can recall her best friend in high school not enjoying it at all. Whenever her friend had a school assignment to read a book, she always complained. If it was an instance where they were allowed to choose their own book, she would ask my daughter for a book with a few pages. I remember being amused when my daughter gave her The Pearl which was about 75-80 pages long. She exclaimed "ALL THESE PAGES!
They are both happy healthy adults now. (25 years old) They both graduated high school. My daughter went on to college, her friend started working. Her friend is now a wife and mother. My daughter has a career. Her friend still does not like to read. My daughter still loves reading.

Answer 3

As a parent considering home-schooling, I find it ridiculous that people without a degree want to teach their children. I think it is outrageous when someone with a very non-related degree wants to teach and it can be harmful for the kids. I do not think you should have all the majors to home-school your children but you should be expert at one thing at least and take a mandatory exam of each subject you want to teach. I mean you can have 20 degrees but that does not make you an expert. I do expect a home-schooling parent to have at least one degree and relevant knowledge which gets tested according to FEDERAL standards. Like you said, some kind of certification should be the minimum requirement for a home-schooling parent. At the moment, I do not think they have strict standards regarding the parents, only the children. From what I've gained, home-schooling rather relies on children who are able to study on their own with some parental help. I mean the material is given, not the parents have to make it up. My problem with the system is that reading about something or learning with your kids does not make you a teacher because teaching is not only about the knowledge of the subject matter... not everybody can teach. That's why people should acquire a teaching certificate. Kevin: if someone is too lazy and bored to finish high school, it tells a lot about his or her character. High school drop-outs are bored? Oh come on, we went to college because we loved it? We had to do it, we wanted to be educated, we did not give up while high school drop-outs did. Should I respect them and tell them they would be much better teachers than me just because they did no go through the boring college years? Wow, what a logic. I didn't know I should be ashamed of my degrees...

Answer 4

it maybe not be reading as much as it is concentration. kids are eating more sugar in more forms than ever before. kids can by soda's at school. and with music videos, take a look at one and you will notice that most scenes are 3 secs. or less to keep the short attention spans of students under control.

id first suggest some simple life improvement things to my students. challenge them to go a night at home without watching tv. get them to drink only water for a day. things they now they should do but as a challenge it may be more fun.

same with books. get them hooked on some good essays. then short stories, then plays, and last novels.

that natural progression should work

Answer 5

--AS A TEACHER, tutor, counselor, instructor for over 45 years--I have found that young people like myself, who was not given much of a foundation in reading , contend with these fears:

1. Fear of the meaning of words!
2. Fear of the pronounciation of words!
3. Fear of the right word & its meaning in a sentence, phrase etc.

--PARENTS, read something with your children several times a week! Kindly instruct as to word meaning, use etc.
***15 minutes every other day or as the child desires would help tremendously--Be the teacher you should be! BETTER than any school teacher!

--TEACHERS--Get off your high horse and have compassion for those who struggle in reading out loud! Or cannot speed read! Or what-ever irks you!
***Embarrass a student unnecessarily in their reading ---& you do not deserve to teach anybody!

--ALL INVOLVED should help young people look at reading as a different adventure everytime they pick up a book, read an ariticle , short story, a play or what-ever!
--SHOW HOW research can be like a treasure search of the greatest kind, make it meaningful!
--HELP them to distinguish between fiction ,non-fiction, biographies, the true sciences vs. the false, truthful doctrines in the Bible vs. religions dogma--

Legislation does nothing to help the individual when individually we do not get involved with our children or students!

Answer 6

The time spent on teaching in grade school is more often less focused on fundamentals like reading and writing, but more focused on subjects with which the U.S. falsely measures education like mathematics, sciences, and social studies. This will give kids a disadvantage that they will carry with them throughout life.

Solution: We need to remove the politicians education. Assessments that are given to measure educational advancement do nothing to help the education process, but allow politicians to have a nice war fuzzy feeling that THEY are making a difference. This creates competition between school districts and states as the test results directly affect federal funding a distric can recieve. This causes districts to alter their curriculum to only make students proficient in what will be tested. Instead, educators need to observe the education as it takes place and make corrections over time as they are needed.

Answer 7

Well, today, a lot of high school students have trouble reading in general.

Answer 8

might be reading too slowly to comprehend it so it would be boring...i took a speed reading class when i was in high school and it was very effective regardless of what people say about it....my reading speed increased from 250 words per minute to 750 wpm....

or it could be that they really just don't like reading..some people are like that...there's nothing really that you can do about that except maybe try to get them reading something they might really like...

Answer 9

spoon fed all ther life and what can be done is make reading mandatory 3 books a yr or something in school They get the computer to do eveything thats why and a calculator thats what we made them

Answer 10

track all the games he plays, and maybe just give him a computer with a bad graphics card good for school and bad for games. :P Or encourage, bribe, force, or tell him it'll make him smart lol.