Why I Think Literary Elitism Harms Kids

This Newsweek article about Classics Illustrated makes me happy. (Found via Blog@Newsarama).

I recall reading a few of the Classics Illustrated books as a kid, borrowing them from the school library and really enjoying them. I'm really glad that they're making new versions, since really, while I don't particularly care if kids ever get introduced to "the Classics" but anything that gets kids reading more makes me happy. I'm always sad to see kids say that they don't like reading because it seems clear to me that said kids just haven't found the right subject matter.

One bit from the article pisses me off though:

You can't go wrong with any of these series. But the old question posed by strict teachers and worried parents still hangs in the air: shouldn't you be reading the originals and not wasting your time on what used to be called "funny books"?

Of course this isn't the writer's sentiment, and in fact, the article's writer clearly disagrees with it, but I have always hated the kind of elitism that this quoted bit represents. It shouldn't matter what kids are reading, as long as they're reading, and it's this sort of attitude that turns kids away from reading, period.

Of course, I'm somewhat biased. I have distinct memories of bringing Star Trek books to my school's Summer Day Care program and trying to happily read only to get glowered at by some adult or other (thankfully none of my own teachers) going "Should you be letting her read THAT?"

It didn't matter that the novels were at least a couple hundred pages long or that I was one of the more skilled readers of my grade level what with all the practice I got. These people were simply aghast that I was reading something that wasn't "worthwhile".

Fortunately, my teachers didn't particularly care what I read as long as I was kept quiet (I was rather rambunctious. :-P) and my parents have always been incredibly practical sorts, aside from being avid Romance novel and Sci-Fi/Western/Men's Adventure novel readers themselves, and were just happy that I was reading period.

But I knew boys who had to sneak comic books inside text books, because their parents Did Not Approve. Girls who had to pass around fantasy or romance novels amongst each other because their parents would never allow them to buy or borrow any from a library. It was positively ridiculous.

And more and more kids just stopped reading altogether. Why should they bother? TV gave as much of an adventure or soap opera thrill and since it came into the house unblocked, the kids just had to wait for a time when mom and dad weren't around/paying attention.

I never understood what these parents were thinking. Seriously? If a kid tries something like Dickens and doesn't like it, you're not going to force him to change his mind by taking away all the other less savory choices. Maybe he'll like it when he's older, maybe not. I know personally, I'm a total English Phillistine. Dickens bores the fuck out of me. The Great Gatsby was filled with characters that I absolutely despised. And don't get me started on Catcher and the Rye. I don't resent my high school for making me read them, of course, since I'm sure there are valuable life lessons to be learned from them. But honestly, I was never more happy than when I could put that damn wretched thing down and pick up something I actually liked.

You can deplore my taste if you want. :-) I don't mind.

School is supposed to, as I see it, make you read books you don't particularly want to read. But I think parents (and teachers to a lesser extent) have the responsibility to ensure that kids also have access to reading material that will actually keep them reading. Even if they don't personally approve.

Hell, it doesn't have to be comic books or novels or anything like that even. I mean, consider how much reading there is in the average Final Fantasy game. Take Final Fantasy X (I know, I'm out of date. But I've never played many MMORPGs, and I never got around to FFXII). That game can take upwards of 100 hours to play, easy. And while there's definitely voice acting, if you consider the amount of unvoiced text the game has in the form of menus, minigames, battles, and the like, there's no way Junior's reading skills are going to get rusty.

Honestly, the sort of elitism that the quoted sentiment represents makes me ill. I believe that it causes real and possibly irreversable harm to the kids who have to hear it all the time. It turns reading into a chore and an assignment and that's not what reading is about. It's really infuriating.