They don't read!!

reading with your children is the best gift you can give to your child and they absolutely love it, its the best way to spend time with them, but unfortunately its true, books have taken a back burner with most children these days.

Reading skills are declining not only among Arab children, but the world over. With the exposure to internet, gaming, and other attractions, it will take a lot of effort on part of parents & educators to get children to develop the love of books. Add to that the rising cost of publications and you have a hard battle ahead.

Not just reading. Kids nowadays spend a lot of time on the computer, instead of out exploring nature, just cycling around, fishing or other physical activities.

My parents always discouraged me from reading as I was always reading everything that was not connected to my school curriculum, I read anything and everyhing when I was in school :)

I remember my father once telling me, Son you know you have some books in your syllabus too..

http://skadian-lifeinqatar.blogspot.com/

I dislike the word "they" as much as I dislike the phrase "these people." I try really hard in my spiritual discipline not to succumb to using them or even thinking them.

Mandi

Internet when used properly can be a useful source of virtual information apart from hard copy books. And that would make no difference between both source of reading materials, if used properly by they and them.

sometimes i use it too

I hate the word "They".

Source:

- A study Conducted by FriedUnicorn - Vol I (September,1999)

olive your comment was hilarious!!!

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I'm Jack's complete lack of surprise

there's a tremendous feeling of "love" and "acceptance" flowing in the space of QL these days:S

Yalla!

reading everything, watching everything, taking what i want and wasting what's waste. don't judge me, i wouldn't.

the study is about arab world, that's why arabs were mentioned, whoever doesn't like this study or find it offensive, just skip it, and go search for same study done on other ethnicity, and then come quickly and post it on QL before someone else does.

Yalla!

Source:

- A study Conducted by FriedUnicorn - Vol I (September,1999)

Sadly this trend is evident all over the world. Books are becoming less important. TV, X-Box, PS3 & the Internet are eating into the reading time for children..

reading different sort of books make every persons vocabulary wider... love stories make people feel brightened about love, even when their hearts are broken.. reading makes you intelligent from both realistic & non-realistic aspect... ;)

temper is something u cant get rid of... by loosing it...

What's wrong with love stories? I mean, besides being formulaic and using excessive, flowery verbage, I don't see how the reading of a romance novel is so bad. And whoever is in charge of the inventory of Jarir Bookstore clearly agrees with me: half that store is love stories!

They read "love stories".

Why do all your posts end up bashing Westerns in one way or another? Also, what is wrong with increasing the imagination? You made it sound like a negative thing.

Khalid,

I read real books, mostly non-fiction.

this is the biggest problem.

Reading a book is like watching a TV.

Bad TV programs = Bad books.

Many westerns are reading while waiting in the train or airport read big books.

I tried to read one of these books but I stopped because some of these books are only increasing the imagination with no targets, those people which I saw are reading love stories.

Make sure to choose the good book which will help you to move forward.

LOL

So make a new one on ways to increase reading among youth! Who said posts have to be useful? Useful to whom?

Jeez -- I simply posted a quote from a newspaper article, and now I have to start a whole online symposium on parenting and teaching methodologies to increase literacy rates?

I didn't sign on for that when I started this thread.

Sorry.

And while the Qatar Foundation is a great initiative that I think is making advances in providing a great level of higher education to many nationals, I don't think that it is representative of the larger system of independent schools and the level of education that most students get in non-private high schools here.

Though I think the 6 minutes factoid from the article might be a bit of a stretch, I don't think the majority of kids here read much at all. Very few Arabs I know read for pleasure, yet nearly every western expat I know does...

When you say they are fluent in R/W/S, qatarexplorer, I would question whether they are. Most of the Arabic instructors I have worked with over the years here routinely expressed dismay at the level of Arabic many local students possessed (I am unclear if they refer to grammar skills, reading, writing - or a combo of all). I'm certainly not qualified to make any assessment of their Arabic skills, but I have to trust that those teacher knew their stuff.

"If you're looking for sympathy, you'll find it between sh*t and syphilis in the dictionary."

- David Sedaris

i think qatar and the qatari people is not like that, if you will go to education city and the program of goverment, the qatar foundation etc...it is contradictory to that survey...and the post of ummjake......another goverment effort is the law penalizing parents of not sending their kids to school to study and learn...i'ved met and talk to a number of qatari and they are fluent in reading, writing and speaking.

about the behavior at the roads not only qataris drive fast and behave arrogant even asians and other arabs do the same attitude. it seems that this trend became common traits. but i must warn you dont do that behaviour when driving in our country (philippines)or you will end up with the whole of bullets in your head (serious mode).

This is every were and it depends on the parents skills to plant the reading interests in their children.

As you know some parents do not take a book and sit in the sofa at home and read.

The post should be change to how can we increase the reading interest in our children?

Answering this question will make the post very useful.

I posted this the day the article in the local press came out, over a week ago now.

There wasn't much of a discussion going on about it in the thread, hence I didn't chime in again.

The newspaper story didn't delve into the reasons for such findings (nor did it even provide the source for the stat it gave, I might add). You posted a reply which, I thought, did a good job of putting things into perspective. All good and valid reasons.

I would agree that a study five years from now would probably provide better validity on the reading habits of Arab children. But until then, I don't think we should stop collecting data. I would hope that every year (for the foreseeable future) would see a significant increase in the amount of reading children here do.

And BTW, I don't think of Arabs as a separate race of people. A different ethnicity for sure, but not a race.

"If you're looking for sympathy, you'll find it between sh*t and syphilis in the dictionary."

- David Sedaris

with all the technology we have nowadays, its not a wonder why children won't even touch a book unless it's shoved in their face.

And I'm not talking about the people/children of the Arab world but the entire world as well.

Internet, video games, PSPs and all those techy gadgets makes "children" read less and be physically active.

Don't get me wrong....I'm a MOTHER/PARENT as well and I'm deeply concerned too that my kids spend most of their free time in front of the computer, instead of reading, playing sports and interacting with other kids OUTSIDE the house. Call me OLD FASHIONED but I grew up with my nose between the book pages or playing sports or singing in the choir or doing school activities.

I work for a primary school and I see these kids couldn't care less about books or reading. But I must agree, they do love sports...

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What’s pathetic about this thread, that “ummjake” makes her racially sarcastic comment & run…

With no mean to discuss the reasons behind such findings

When it comes to Qatar, such statistics should at least be conducted 5 years from now . As it’s a whole new era with RAND-QATAR’s 2007 Qatar Education Reform.

LeBaNeSeMaN,

wow, your words are so full of wisdom... do you read?

;)

http://yadiin.blogspot.com/

It is just the second generation of literate people in Qatar or in the Arab world . I guess that the grand parents generation was nearly 100% illiterate as the first schools opened only in the 1950's around here.

So we can not expect from the society to show similar reading habits to those countries where compulsory education existed already in the 19 th century ..

As always the comment which is worth reading is that of genesis.

Nic it is impolite to bash the people which are giving u (and others) a good place to stay and a high salary to get at the end of the month.

if u dont like here, go back to ur country

http://yadiin.blogspot.com

Just an interesting addition :

Surah 96 Commands humans to read !

Iqra bi-ismi rabbika

allTHEE khalaq

read in the name of your Lord

Who has created all

I’m not surprised from the outcome of this study, taking in consideration factors like illiteracy & poverty in population dense countries like Egypt, morocco & Iraq. Unfortunately the satellite/Internet Era had a negative impact on the Arab world as most intellects turned their backs on reading & focused on media visuals (Aljazeera) & electronic forums (Elaph) .Maybe this is because of amount of freedom of expression allowed. Even locally, Many columnists have chosen to publish their articles on-line rather than have it banned or brutally censored by local newspaper Editors. If you take a look at the Arabic book section in Jarir or Virgin , you’ll find out that top sold books are mostly translated publication like Dan Brown’s latest novel or an international top 10 non-fiction. There are very few Arab publishers & the amount of books published annually is decreasing because most Arab ( at least the intellectuals) prefer to read electronically

Well, that is not very accurate about children here in Qatar. But, I do not know about the rest of the arab world.

No No No...who will drive the LC !!!!!

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- God Gives n Forgivs .. We Gets n Forgets -

Reading is very important for personal development.Of course as parents you need to get them good quality books.If it has a moral thats the best."cos child's mind is like a sponge which absorbs any thing and will reflect in their life later.And do agree as parents you must start reading, if you want yr child to read.The best start is read to them but as if you are more interested in the book than yr child is,and make it very intereting.For a child love is time,time you decide to spend with him,

I hope doha will have plenty of book shops with variety.

Reading is dangerous for any establishment!

Reading may be seen as a way to open minds, exposure to imagination and many different views and interpretations of the world and this may be against conservative religious mentalities, who want to maintain people within their tiny enclosed boxes.

Children read only if they see their parents read...

I guess the parents dont encourage them to read.. unfortunately they are not aware the benefits of reading!! and those who know it..will excel in studies as well...

They probably can't read. They all suffer from learning disabilities because they're parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents were all first cousins.

Not surprised. Just look around and see how most of them behave and drive and you can guess their level of intellect!

parents should encourage them more

...listen to the sound of silence....