the thin line between optimism and delusion…

Study Links Drop in Test Scores to a Decline in Time Spent Reading. 

from the article –

The data also showed that students who read for fun nearly every day performed better on reading tests than those who reported reading never or hardly at all.

As I child, I was a nerd.  I spent a lot of time in my room by myself reading books.  I spent a lot of time in public reading books. I was also terribly hyperactive.  Basically, if I was sitting still, my nose was probably in a book.  I’m not sure how it works for a hyperactive attention deficit child to be a compulsive reader, but it just happened to be the only time I was able to focus.  I think it had to do with my overactive imagination and the fact that I was (and still am) captivated by stories.  Books were my escape from my everyday life of losing things, breaking stuff, and being reprimanded by adults. 

I think I was made fun of for reading so much.  I don’t really remember, because I was a pretty unaffected child, and probably didn’t really care.  My love for reading far outweighed any sort of social stigma I might have experienced. 

The first time I because cognizant that my reading habits had been the subject of ridicule was in high school.  Because in high school we started taking standardized tests like the SAT.  And I was good at these tests.  And friends started saying things like, "Well, I guess we shouldn’t have made fun of you for reading so much when we were little."  Even parents would say things like, "You sure showed us, even though we used to pick on you for reading all the time, you have the last laugh with your SAT score."  And honestly my score wasn’t anything for the record books, but I did well early in high school, it never got a lot better, but I took the tests early which for some reason seemed to make them more impressive than they actually were. 

But my first thought with these comments was – "Huh? Y’all were making fun of me?  I don’t remember that."  And "I wonder if reading really is the way to do well on standardized tests."  And I’ve sort of been wondering about that ever since. 

And so I thought this article was really interesting.  Obviously, if reading doesn’t bring you pleasure, you aren’t going to read for pleasure.  So it isn’t really fair to say that if you want to do well you should read.  Because, well, the advantage is probably in the margin of people who actually read ALL THE TIME for YEARS.  So, I think you really need the love.  But, anyway, thought it was an interesting article. 

Also wanted to talk about this article on Denial – but don’t have time.  Love the topic of denial.  Think it is really fascinating.