"The Medium Is the Medium" David Brooks/New York Times 7/8/10
"Book smart: Just a dozen books could alter a child's future" Houston Chronicle 6/30/10
"Free books block 'summer-slide' in low-income students" USA Today 5/31/10
Three pieces that all focus on the same study, which so backs up my recent essay about summer reading. Led by Richard Allington, researchers found that the simple act of letting disadvantaged kids choose a dozen books that they would be given at the end of the school year led to higher reading scores, less of a summer slump, and more reading. I found it significant that the students chose the books themselves, and they owned the books--their own library.
Brooks contrasts this study with one done at Duke, which I had mentioned earlier here and on my website, about the use of PCs correlating with poorer school performance. He then nicely segues into the to-do surrounding Nicholas Carr's recent The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing To Our Brains. Carr's book takes off from the article he wrote for the Atlantic two years ago that is still generating sparks, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"
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