People are readily assisting their own ghettoization. Exactly at the time when self-control, focus, intelligence and discipline become more crucial than ever, they stampede in the opposite direction.
The table above is the result of one thing: parental self-indulgence. People are buying a one-way ticket to a favela for their own children because they refuse to exercise any self-control.
methyethyl
Yes, people are always surprised that we have hundreds of books and disks in the office and shocked at the thousands of books, notebooks, and journals collected in the basement. I always say that at least one of us, and often both, have read all of them. And Kid, here is a joke I have been saving for you ;-D
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It comes from parental example. I read a ton and my husband reads a great deal, too. We have books in every genre in the house, we borrow from the library, we go to bookstores, we buy them online, we own multiple Kindle devices. Books are everywhere and an integral part of our lives, so our kids read, too. You can’t convince kids to do something they clearly see their parents avoid.
– xykademiqz
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True. People keep saying, “wow, your kid reads paper books.” Like there was any alternative given who her parents are. I drag three books anywhere I go. It’s like breathing to me.
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I had to make a rule that if my kids want to bring books along, they have to be responsible for transport. I have a big purse, but I can’t fit my books *and* theirs too. It’d weigh fifty pounds! But then my eldest accidentally left a large and expensive-to-replace volume on top of the car while playing outside, and my husband got halfway to work the next day before it flew off and smashed, irretrievable, in the road. So now we have rules about taking books outdoors, too. Sigh.
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My guys haven’t tried the bathtub yet– probably for the best as they all take showers. Eldest discovered all on his own that “while walking” was not a good idea, so I never had to make it a rule. Yay? Have not found any books in the refrigerator this year. Yet. I’ve stopped trying to enforce reading-lamps-out by 9pm though. I just remind them “remember, we have (whatever) at 8am tomorrow. If you’re tired, that’s on you.”
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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