Young Adults Are Becoming Lost Arts Essay

As a kid, I was always really shy and spent much of my free time reading books. In 4th grade, the teacher required that each month we read a certain amount of short stories or books and write a summary for each. I always completed the minimum requirement and read plenty extra books. Throughout the year, I always had the most stars next to my name for top reader, not because I wanted to collect as many gold stars as I could, but because I really enjoyed reading. I had my eyes glued to a book even when I was at home. I

In first grade, I remember being in a special reading group with only one other person. We read chapter books, while

In his essay, “Generation Text,” Mark Bauerlein, uses many statistics and strong evidence to convince his audience that adolescents are losing the need to learn and grasp the knowledge of the arts and humanities that once were important to previous generations.

Many of my teachers were unwilling to spend one-on-one time with me to allow me to understand at the correct pace, that was until last year when Sarah Wansley stepped in and really helped me to understand grammar, reading, and writing. The most recent book I read was Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, although the book was required for a school project I now consider it to be my favorite book. During the research of Alboms memoir I learned not only how to research and look at the background and continuations of some novels, but also that there are books for everyone to enjoy and get lost in no matter how many book you have read and found completely boring. I often found reading to be just that, reading, I never digested and understood the text. I would read a sentence and two seconds later I could not tell you a single word of it, because I was never digesting the words on the page to make sense. That is the main reason I did not enjoy many books assigned for school, I would only read it to answer the questions on the study guide and then a majority of the time I would fail the tests because I never took the extra time to enjoy the

We all know many kids who do not like to read from elementary to college. In the early school years, there was always an instructor or, a parent to always guiding us. Or they would say it’s time for silent reading or even force us to read. This always worked for the best because kids to today love to tell stories to friends and families. Malcolm X went to the Norfolk colony’s prison, library everyday where he would stay for at an hour. He felt like he was in heaven just from seeing all the different books. He would be concentrating so hard on the books, which he would stay up past the normal time to go to sleep. Sometimes when it would be lights out he would try to read in the dark just because the book was just starting to get interesting.

I believe this is the best thing that could have happened to me. By the spring, I was already reading at a fifth grade level. Mrs. Littlefield was the teacher who really encouraged me to keep reading. In our first grade classroom, we had a baseball diamond. Each of the bases were set up for some type of activity to reinforce the phonics sounds we were learning. When we got to home plate, we had a reading group time with the teacher. I didn’t really care for this, because I felt I was held back waiting on others to read. I know it was beneficial to the learning process, but at the time, I would have rather read by myself. At night, I remember reading to myself out loud. My brothers would often complain because they couldn’t concentrate to read their books with me reading aloud. Fortunately my mother always came to my

In this article from 2005, Dana Gioia is telling Americans how much the decline in reading among young Americans has gone. Gioia is encouraging Americans to read, and writes about the consequences of not having this literature reading skill.

When I was a child, my grandmother use to read to me when I would stay the night with her. I always loved that. Every time she would get me a new book I would be so excited and wanted to read it immediately. I really wish I was still like that but unfortunately I am not. If we have to read a book in class I do absolutely anything to avoid it. I try to do anything I can to get out of it. But I never get out of it and just end up failing every assignment

Declines in reading is growing larger and larger as time goes on. The author showed this by using a survey that was taken in 2002. It stated “declines have been most severe among younger adults… ages 18-24”. If the younger adults arent intrested in reading, then they won’t push that love onto their children one day. This then starts a trend of literature rates droping fast.

Within the first paragraph Gioia illustrates the rapid decline in the reading of literature by young adults. By citing the 2002 Survey of Public Participation, it was discovered that “eight of the nine major forms of art”, including literacy, are in a downturn. Through

Reading and writing have played monumental roles in the game called my life. For as long as I can remember, I have been reading or writing, whether it was showcasing my reading skills to my grandparents when I was six, or teaching myself calligraphy when I was thirteen. English literature and all the things it encompasses has always mattered to me, and (almost always) has been a source of my happiness. According to Dana Gioia from “Why Literature Matters, ” more and more young adults are starting to feel the opposite—that reading literature is not interesting and doesn’t matter. “During the past quarter century...the interest young Americans showed in...literature…[has] diminished.” To support this claim that literature matters, Gioia

Starting this year, every day we start class with ten minutes of independent reading time. I really enjoy this time. It allows me to choose genres that interest me, which in turn encourages me to read more. As I start reading

Once first grade came around I had officially found my one favorite teachers. I was so enthused about the idea of having two teachers to learn from, one teacher taught math and science, while the other teacher taught English and social studies. My English teacher had a way a drawing our short attention spans in quickly and could keep up engaged for the entire timeframe of English. When it came to reading books, myself I had issues and reading was not a good friend of mine at this point. I had troubles comprehending what I was reading much of the time, and I was reading at a

I remember when I was young I read a lot of books. I kind of ‘hit my peak’ with reading at age ten through eleven. I read every night, sometimes I would read up until midnight. I read so much that I actually got in trouble at school multiple times for reading while class was going on. I remember a moment when the teacher was so frustrated with me for reading while he was talking, he berated me in front of the class. That wasn’t a good experience, and I remember being really embarrassed. I had a lot of bullying problems at the time and a few of them were in that class, so that gave them more ammo. But that was just one time, and normally I was just told to put the book away.

From an early age I loved to read. At just two years old I would beg my mother to enroll me into school. I watched as my older sister meticulously picked out her outfit each night in preparation for the next school day. At such a young age I somehow knew that this thing called “school” was the answer to something spectacular. My home was chaotic and reading became an escape and helped distract me from the unpleasant family dynamic.