How to get children to read more again?
There are a lot of things that people from older generations are complaining about the the children of today. One these things is, that children are not reading enough anymore and are instead just sitting in front of the TV, or playing computer games. Sure, this argumentation isn't really watertight, but may be there is also some truth in it. I guess our children are really reading too less, but not all of them. It seems to be a problem of social belonging and not at least a problem of a ineffective marketing. In this text I want to point out some possible reasons for the problem and search for some solutions.
The important question to this topic is why children are not reading books that much anymore. Why did books lost their attractiveness for a large number of children? In my eyes one of the reasons for it is that the publishing industry has a very bad marketing concept. They are still supporting and preferring the old distribution ways (in Germany) and don't get involved with the new media. E-books for example are still not very common in Europe. In Japan for example the publishers reacted faster and now thousands of young people downloading e-books on their mobile phones and are reading them while they are sitting in trains and buses. It became a real hype. With the Internet its now possible for everybody to publish his works very cheap. A lot of very good young authors have now the chance to reach a large number of readers. If the publishing industry would have been faster they could have made leastwise some money, but now they get nothing out of it. Especially young people and kids are using the Internet for a large number of hours during the day, so it should be easy do get their attention for books by advertisements. But in reality you see commercials for everything but books. The publishers are setting advertisements for books mostly in weekly newspapers where it is not really necessary, because most of the readers belong to the group of society who is already reading a lot. It will not help to get new readers. Especially not very young people.
Another point what is in my eyes important to mention is the price for books. They became very expensive in the last years. An increasing number of parents is not able to pay a lot of money for books. They need it for the clothes, for food and another basic expenses. In my eyes, the financial situation is also responsible for the fact, that parents are not reading anymore for their kids. They have no time for it because they have to work to much and are still earning just a basic income.
It also doesn't help when the schools are trying to enlarge the number of readers, when the kids have to pay for the books in literature classes. When I was in school we had to read 8 different books in our German class. For some students it was hard to pay the books.
When we want to get more people to read again in future, we need to make books free every child. The possibility to read books shouldn't be nowadays a question of social status like in former centuries. One idea could be that children get some vouchers for books every year. That wouldn't be that expensive for the government and it would help to improve the education standard. Reading is still the key to knowledge. Books are inspiring our minds our imagination. The Governments and the publishers should work together to keep our great European literature alive.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Assignment #5
Not at least since the devious terrorist attacks of 9/11 an insidious demise is looming over the our democracies. The influence of Governments on everybody's private life is getting bigger and bigger. Whether in our city centers, underground stations or public fairs, everywhere are surveillance cameras installed. With the cell phone in your pocket you can be tracked meter-perfect at every time. In some European States Governments are allowed to set in spy-programs on your computer to find out if you are involved in any illegal activities. Nevertheless that European countries are making heavy weather of such interventions in their citizen's private sphere the democratic achievements like freedom and independence are on and on going to be circumcised. Sure it is not easy to find the right extent of interventions but I wonder if the price we pay for a supposed security, the loss of civil liberty, isn't too high?
I want to begin with an example from my German hometown Munich. It's supposed to be one of the most secure cities in Europe. I am happy about the fact but the question is why it is so secure. Is it because of the surveillance cameras everywhere downtown? Is it because of the large number of police officers you see in the streets, or is it because of the fact, that Munich is also the richest town in Germany and there are not as many social problems, which are leading very often to a higher crime rate, as in other German cities? To be honest I can't answer these questions myself, but I don't feel more secure, if I see all the police on the streets. In contrast I feel monitored. I think there is no other town in whole Europe where youngsters are that often asked to show their Ids and that with no reason. You feel suspected all the time. The interesting part is that girls never getting checked. So if some smart, really criminal guys just put their drugs, or whatever in the backpacks of their girlfriends, they never get caught. And it's not nice to say, but I have the feeling, that most of the criminal guys are that smart. Unfortunately smarter than the police.
Some people are saying that you don't have to be afraid of surveillance cameras if you don't do illegal things. But to me it seems like the Government, which should work for you because it's elected by you, shouldn't set all it's citizens under suspicion. And surveillance cameras are doing exactly this thing. I agree that in some vulnerable parts of cities such cameras might be useful, like on high frequented train stations, or Airports, but I don't think that they need 360º cameras with zooms, which are making it possible to read the time from your watch, in the city center. Another point connected to all these surveillance cameras, Cell phone logs and savings of your Internet-connection data is that I distrust the way all these delicate data are saved. I guess it's not very hard for computer hackers to imbibe these data.
On the other hand I think people and also I, are to carefree in dealing with our personal data, especially in the world wide web. We are sharing our minds via blogs, showing pictures of us, our political views, our music taste, our relation status, our actual location and our mood on social platforms like Facebook and Myspace without thinking about it how useful all these information are for future employers and not at least for companies.
All in all I think we, the citizens, should stay alert and keep observing our Governments when they are busy with our civil rights but it's quasi important to deal carefully with ones own personal data because I'm sure that we are leaving more traces in the world wide web than we want to.
I want to begin with an example from my German hometown Munich. It's supposed to be one of the most secure cities in Europe. I am happy about the fact but the question is why it is so secure. Is it because of the surveillance cameras everywhere downtown? Is it because of the large number of police officers you see in the streets, or is it because of the fact, that Munich is also the richest town in Germany and there are not as many social problems, which are leading very often to a higher crime rate, as in other German cities? To be honest I can't answer these questions myself, but I don't feel more secure, if I see all the police on the streets. In contrast I feel monitored. I think there is no other town in whole Europe where youngsters are that often asked to show their Ids and that with no reason. You feel suspected all the time. The interesting part is that girls never getting checked. So if some smart, really criminal guys just put their drugs, or whatever in the backpacks of their girlfriends, they never get caught. And it's not nice to say, but I have the feeling, that most of the criminal guys are that smart. Unfortunately smarter than the police.
Some people are saying that you don't have to be afraid of surveillance cameras if you don't do illegal things. But to me it seems like the Government, which should work for you because it's elected by you, shouldn't set all it's citizens under suspicion. And surveillance cameras are doing exactly this thing. I agree that in some vulnerable parts of cities such cameras might be useful, like on high frequented train stations, or Airports, but I don't think that they need 360º cameras with zooms, which are making it possible to read the time from your watch, in the city center. Another point connected to all these surveillance cameras, Cell phone logs and savings of your Internet-connection data is that I distrust the way all these delicate data are saved. I guess it's not very hard for computer hackers to imbibe these data.
On the other hand I think people and also I, are to carefree in dealing with our personal data, especially in the world wide web. We are sharing our minds via blogs, showing pictures of us, our political views, our music taste, our relation status, our actual location and our mood on social platforms like Facebook and Myspace without thinking about it how useful all these information are for future employers and not at least for companies.
All in all I think we, the citizens, should stay alert and keep observing our Governments when they are busy with our civil rights but it's quasi important to deal carefully with ones own personal data because I'm sure that we are leaving more traces in the world wide web than we want to.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
#4 Grades are important but just if given with deliberation
Grades were part of my life with the very beginning of my education. Grown up the first years of my life in former Czechoslovakia, what and this time was a communist country, the education was one of the highest aims of the Government. In this society everything had to be comparable. Factories were set by the Government to productivity contests so it's not amazing, that this attitude spared no-one, especially not the children. The children were graded already in the kindergarten. There were no real grades, I grant, but the parents were continuously informed about the development of their children compared to other children's development. Especially in the relatively small town, were I grew up, a real competition between the parents was aroused. At this time I felt no pressure, it was more like a game to me, when my parents started to teach me to read and write before I came to school. I was curios about it. Later, when I continued my education in Germany I started to understand how grades can conduct your life.
At the beginning I have to mention that grades are a superb way to prepare children for their after-life particularly in these days characterized by a competitive and globalized job market, where headhunters and staff managers are selecting their applicants in competitive assessment centers. Grading children from the very beginning of their education prepares them for all these situations. They learn to deal with the feeling of a possible fail and the tension of a competition. This skills are important to be able not to give up oneself and to audible that life is full of ups and downs, but impressionable by an ongoing process of self-improvement.
Furthermore, it is necessary to say that grades are a good possibility to compare the educational development of children in the same class. As education is an ongoing process and important for one's life there must be an opportunity for teachers, especially in big classes like we have in Germany to have a conspectus of the level of each pupil in the class. The easiest and most comparable way to get such overview are graded tests. They enable teachers and parents to improve the skills of the children and bring them to a common educational level. This is especially important in nowadays when children with different educational background are sitting together in one class. A gradings system helps thereby to find the differences between them and allows therefore a specific problem solution.
The mentioned argument against grades is that grades are setting pupils under heavy pressure to succeed. Like mentioned before I think it's easier for children to handle this pressure when they learn it from the very beginning. If they don't learn it in time the emotional stress will be much bigger in their later lives. Nevertheless I think that it's important to do the grading carefully. Because in some cases, for example when children are in a special family situation like a divorcement, the achievements of these children have a decreasing tendency which has nothing to do with their real knowledge. In such cases bad grades can indeed extend the intensity of the already existent stress.
All in all I think that grades are important in our educational system. Like mentioned before they are necessary as a preparation for the after-life and the comparative character enables affirmative actions to reach a common level of all children, never mind from which social class they're coming. Honestly, there are also some problems with grading but they have their origin in the performance and not in the idea itself.
At the beginning I have to mention that grades are a superb way to prepare children for their after-life particularly in these days characterized by a competitive and globalized job market, where headhunters and staff managers are selecting their applicants in competitive assessment centers. Grading children from the very beginning of their education prepares them for all these situations. They learn to deal with the feeling of a possible fail and the tension of a competition. This skills are important to be able not to give up oneself and to audible that life is full of ups and downs, but impressionable by an ongoing process of self-improvement.
Furthermore, it is necessary to say that grades are a good possibility to compare the educational development of children in the same class. As education is an ongoing process and important for one's life there must be an opportunity for teachers, especially in big classes like we have in Germany to have a conspectus of the level of each pupil in the class. The easiest and most comparable way to get such overview are graded tests. They enable teachers and parents to improve the skills of the children and bring them to a common educational level. This is especially important in nowadays when children with different educational background are sitting together in one class. A gradings system helps thereby to find the differences between them and allows therefore a specific problem solution.
The mentioned argument against grades is that grades are setting pupils under heavy pressure to succeed. Like mentioned before I think it's easier for children to handle this pressure when they learn it from the very beginning. If they don't learn it in time the emotional stress will be much bigger in their later lives. Nevertheless I think that it's important to do the grading carefully. Because in some cases, for example when children are in a special family situation like a divorcement, the achievements of these children have a decreasing tendency which has nothing to do with their real knowledge. In such cases bad grades can indeed extend the intensity of the already existent stress.
All in all I think that grades are important in our educational system. Like mentioned before they are necessary as a preparation for the after-life and the comparative character enables affirmative actions to reach a common level of all children, never mind from which social class they're coming. Honestly, there are also some problems with grading but they have their origin in the performance and not in the idea itself.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Assignment #3
At least since former vice president Al Gore's movie and his around the world promotion tour, the climate change reached the public at large. It became part of daily discussion in the media. Global warming was last years top topic. You had the sense that a new era began and people began to think over their behavior towards the nature. Politics followed new goals like the reduction of CO2 emissions, supporting the research and development of renewable energies and more. Not at least after this important topic was replaced by the financial crisis it seems to be that we still didn't realized the scope of this enormous issue. May be we just refuse to believe it. But why are we making heavy weather of accepting the truth of global warming?
At first it's important to note, that for us living in western, or middle Europe the pollution of our environment seems to be a bettered part of our last century's history. It's hard to catch side of obvious misdemeanors against nature in our latitudinal lines. Examples like the disastrous conditions in some parts of western and eastern Germany where coal mining was the number one employer in the region past from our view within closing most of the mines because of inefficiency. The expansion of the European Union caused a measurable improvement of environmental conditions in eastern Europe. We started to be proud of how green now we are. But in fact it's just an example of a simple old rule. “Out of sight, out of mind”. We started to export our trash and our old environment soiling technology to other parts of the world. The far away the better. So we could feel like the saviors of the world. But not much changed. Growing countries like China and India are using our sorted out technology ad nauseam. Millions of old cars blaring out tons of CO2 were shipped to African countries. Now, some years later, when the facts are on the table we presume to reprimand all these countries because of their low environment protection standards.
Nevertheless we were now compelled by the financial crisis to show our true colors. All the goals which were raised to the highest goals of our next decades ended in smoke. Once again it became obvious what the most important of all our issues is. Money. Ideas like shutting down all of Germany's atomic plants are gone with the wind. Instead of improvements of the public traffic systems our Governments are now paying money to everybody who buys a new car, just to safe some old fashioned undiscerning car industry. Sure a lot of people are dependent on these jobs, but it seems to be the wrong way, because we are just decelerating the destruction of our planet instead of trying to stop this destruction.
This big influence of money on our decisions for or against our nature are not just visible in world politics. It's visible in every household. We still try to find cheaper and cheaper products in the supermarkets and shopping malls. Just some of us realized that there must be something wrong when Strawberries from the south of Spain are cheaper than the local ones. We are happy about a bargain buy at the expense of our nature and not at least at the expense of people working for a pittance.
To summarize it all to a point in my opinion it leads all to the theory of “out of sight, out of mind”. Until we will not be haunted more and more by enormous natural disasters, animal diseases and all the thereby connected problems we will not stop our way of living and the destructible behavior. We don't want to believe it. Like little children we need to feel the pain of getting burned until we believe that fire is dangerous.
At first it's important to note, that for us living in western, or middle Europe the pollution of our environment seems to be a bettered part of our last century's history. It's hard to catch side of obvious misdemeanors against nature in our latitudinal lines. Examples like the disastrous conditions in some parts of western and eastern Germany where coal mining was the number one employer in the region past from our view within closing most of the mines because of inefficiency. The expansion of the European Union caused a measurable improvement of environmental conditions in eastern Europe. We started to be proud of how green now we are. But in fact it's just an example of a simple old rule. “Out of sight, out of mind”. We started to export our trash and our old environment soiling technology to other parts of the world. The far away the better. So we could feel like the saviors of the world. But not much changed. Growing countries like China and India are using our sorted out technology ad nauseam. Millions of old cars blaring out tons of CO2 were shipped to African countries. Now, some years later, when the facts are on the table we presume to reprimand all these countries because of their low environment protection standards.
Nevertheless we were now compelled by the financial crisis to show our true colors. All the goals which were raised to the highest goals of our next decades ended in smoke. Once again it became obvious what the most important of all our issues is. Money. Ideas like shutting down all of Germany's atomic plants are gone with the wind. Instead of improvements of the public traffic systems our Governments are now paying money to everybody who buys a new car, just to safe some old fashioned undiscerning car industry. Sure a lot of people are dependent on these jobs, but it seems to be the wrong way, because we are just decelerating the destruction of our planet instead of trying to stop this destruction.
This big influence of money on our decisions for or against our nature are not just visible in world politics. It's visible in every household. We still try to find cheaper and cheaper products in the supermarkets and shopping malls. Just some of us realized that there must be something wrong when Strawberries from the south of Spain are cheaper than the local ones. We are happy about a bargain buy at the expense of our nature and not at least at the expense of people working for a pittance.
To summarize it all to a point in my opinion it leads all to the theory of “out of sight, out of mind”. Until we will not be haunted more and more by enormous natural disasters, animal diseases and all the thereby connected problems we will not stop our way of living and the destructible behavior. We don't want to believe it. Like little children we need to feel the pain of getting burned until we believe that fire is dangerous.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Assignment #2 My favorite TV show
Born in the mid-eighties, I was part of the first real TV-Generation. We were the kids who spend more time in front of goggle-box than every other Generation before. It was the time when the commercial TV stations started to be big in Germany. Before, the German media environment was quite lucid. Of course also the three public-service channels were broadcasting some foreign TV shows like Dallas, the Denver Clan, or Bonanza, but the majority of TV shows were German productions. The upcoming commercial TV stations have twisted this ratio completely. The new TV shows, mostly from the United States, congested us literally.
This wave spared no-one. The elder people started to watch and love the imported game shows like Jeopardy and various formats of daily-soaps. But the change was bigger for us. Growing up with our favorite Astrid Lindgren characters like Emil (Emil I Löneberga), Karlsson (Karlsson på taket) and of course Pippi (Pippi Långstrump) we were now faced with Heman and Saberrider and the Starsheriffs. Doubtless at this time I was nuts on this shows and all the old stuff was totally uncool.
Nowadays I try to screen what I am watching. One effect is that I am endeavoring not to watch these preposterous shows were some third-class-sort-out celebrities are sitting in juries deciding who is good enough to be a model or a singer. In all honesty sometimes I have a look on it. It's necessary to be up to date, because sometimes I have the feeling, that these time-wasting shows are for the mass of people more important than politics and world affairs. Nevertheless in this dessert of entertainment, there are some shows I like. For example there is no episode of The Simpsons I haven't seen. Shows like Friends and King of Queens caused the one or another snigger in me. Since lately there is one actual show I am following like none before. It's called How I met your mother. This masterpiece of a sitcom makes me laugh the whole 30 minutes of every episode. However the humor is embedded into a continuous story about friendship, love and people searching for the right path in life. A lot of these topics are well-placed between the lines of the visible story. Unfortunately it has to be added, that these tricky, well-conceived parts are decreasing in the latest of the four seasons in the wake of the strike of Hollywood authors. Nevertheless I would still recommend to zap-in at a look.
Regarding to my experiences with television I have to conclude that it is harder than ever before to find some good entertainment in television. The fact of having more than 30 free accessible TV stations in Germany doesn't make it easier to do the right choice. It's like with everything in life. It's not the quantity that counts, it's quality. Since a few years I am very happy that it's possible again on some Sunday mornings to follow the adventures of Pippi and the prank of Emil on the German children TV channel, by the way broadcasted by public service.
This wave spared no-one. The elder people started to watch and love the imported game shows like Jeopardy and various formats of daily-soaps. But the change was bigger for us. Growing up with our favorite Astrid Lindgren characters like Emil (Emil I Löneberga), Karlsson (Karlsson på taket) and of course Pippi (Pippi Långstrump) we were now faced with Heman and Saberrider and the Starsheriffs. Doubtless at this time I was nuts on this shows and all the old stuff was totally uncool.
Nowadays I try to screen what I am watching. One effect is that I am endeavoring not to watch these preposterous shows were some third-class-sort-out celebrities are sitting in juries deciding who is good enough to be a model or a singer. In all honesty sometimes I have a look on it. It's necessary to be up to date, because sometimes I have the feeling, that these time-wasting shows are for the mass of people more important than politics and world affairs. Nevertheless in this dessert of entertainment, there are some shows I like. For example there is no episode of The Simpsons I haven't seen. Shows like Friends and King of Queens caused the one or another snigger in me. Since lately there is one actual show I am following like none before. It's called How I met your mother. This masterpiece of a sitcom makes me laugh the whole 30 minutes of every episode. However the humor is embedded into a continuous story about friendship, love and people searching for the right path in life. A lot of these topics are well-placed between the lines of the visible story. Unfortunately it has to be added, that these tricky, well-conceived parts are decreasing in the latest of the four seasons in the wake of the strike of Hollywood authors. Nevertheless I would still recommend to zap-in at a look.
Regarding to my experiences with television I have to conclude that it is harder than ever before to find some good entertainment in television. The fact of having more than 30 free accessible TV stations in Germany doesn't make it easier to do the right choice. It's like with everything in life. It's not the quantity that counts, it's quality. Since a few years I am very happy that it's possible again on some Sunday mornings to follow the adventures of Pippi and the prank of Emil on the German children TV channel, by the way broadcasted by public service.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Assignment #1
When we all are getting older, we start to think about our past life. Even when we are just around the mid-twenties. We realize bit by bit how strong influenced we are by our parent's upbringing. It's fair to say that this is a usual fact but I'm thinking not about things like good behaviors, in my mind are all trifles which are accounting for our character. Now we catch ourselves at carping at the same behaviors like our parents did. Although we refuse to believe that.
Consequently also my expectations about how children should grow up and which experiences are important for their future life are characterized by my own upbringing.
It's not necessary to complain continuously that everything was better in the past. Times are
changing. If our parents, or we would have the same opportunities and the mass of leisure time offers, I'm sure we wouldn't say “Oh great, I don't want to play playstation with my friends. I want to go out and do something different.”.
It's not important for children to make our experiences, or what we think it's necessary for them in our world, because to be honest we don't really know what is going on in their “world”.It doesn't matter if we are just in the twenties and are thinking that we are still so young. Compared to the children we are old. The children have their own language, they prefer other music and of course they have some other needs, because they are growing up in totally different environment.
Maybe for us it was great to play in the forest, but it was great because we were there with our friends. If in nowadays children are playing on line-games it is the same feeling for them. In a for us absurd way it is their way of communication. We are complaining about it and are wondering why they meet in the world wide web even when they are living just some streets away from each other. But then we are sitting in our offices where we are sending instant messages to the colleague one office away.
We should respect the changes in the world and let the children make their own experiences in their own world. We shouldn't try to like everything, but we should try to understand them and give them just the “toolbox” for their future lives including all the tools which helped us to grow up in our environment. Regardless of times, children always need to absorb the core values of humanity. They need to make the experience of respecting each other, friendship, helping each other and the experience of being loved by someone.
With these and some more experiences they will be able to grow up happily and satisfied in their for us sometimes unintelligible world full of new technical and social inventions.
Consequently also my expectations about how children should grow up and which experiences are important for their future life are characterized by my own upbringing.
It's not necessary to complain continuously that everything was better in the past. Times are
changing. If our parents, or we would have the same opportunities and the mass of leisure time offers, I'm sure we wouldn't say “Oh great, I don't want to play playstation with my friends. I want to go out and do something different.”.
It's not important for children to make our experiences, or what we think it's necessary for them in our world, because to be honest we don't really know what is going on in their “world”.It doesn't matter if we are just in the twenties and are thinking that we are still so young. Compared to the children we are old. The children have their own language, they prefer other music and of course they have some other needs, because they are growing up in totally different environment.
Maybe for us it was great to play in the forest, but it was great because we were there with our friends. If in nowadays children are playing on line-games it is the same feeling for them. In a for us absurd way it is their way of communication. We are complaining about it and are wondering why they meet in the world wide web even when they are living just some streets away from each other. But then we are sitting in our offices where we are sending instant messages to the colleague one office away.
We should respect the changes in the world and let the children make their own experiences in their own world. We shouldn't try to like everything, but we should try to understand them and give them just the “toolbox” for their future lives including all the tools which helped us to grow up in our environment. Regardless of times, children always need to absorb the core values of humanity. They need to make the experience of respecting each other, friendship, helping each other and the experience of being loved by someone.
With these and some more experiences they will be able to grow up happily and satisfied in their for us sometimes unintelligible world full of new technical and social inventions.
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