posted on Jul, 31 2005 @ 04:22 AM
You make a good point, and I agree that reading fiction is a poor way to become educated. Nevertheless, do you not agree that the explosion of book
sales and huge rise in time children spend reading books, any books, is bound to raise their levels and rates of literacy, which is a crucial
prerequisite to succeeding in the academic world? I am not saying Harry Potter is making kids smarter, just that the increased reading is raising
their vocabulary and literacy. And that is very likely to raise the number of kids who succeed in school. Just like playing a musical instrument
raises your likelihood of doing well in math, reading fiction raises your likelihood of comprehending the material they will have to wade through in
post secondary institutions.
But, whether that is actually beneficial overall in the long run remains to be seen. The important thing, in my view, is that they learn compassion.
It will not be our brains that determine our future success or failure in the coming crunch, but our hearts. We need to all get along, and help each
other. Forrest Gump is a great story of how a 'slow' person can make a huge difference in world events because he's a good guy. Hitler was an
intellectual genius of the highest calibre, and look what he did.