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Rudyard Kipling makes cakes

edited April 2011 in - Writing Tales
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1374992/Jules-Verne-Rudyard-Kipling-making-cakes-THird-UK-children-poor-literature-knowledge.html

I like the idea of putting poem and book extracts on cereal boxes.

Comments

  • I think that it's a bit of a big asumption to assume that just because children don't know that Jules Verne and Rudyard Kipling are authors and only associate food products with them, that it's part of the kids don't read idea.

    They aren't the sort of authors who children would have read about, or read their books. They are the age to associate Kipling with cakes and even Philias Fogg was turned into a children's animated series twenty years ago.

    Make a disney/pixar movie now of their books- and personally Jules Verne's story would make great films-and every child would have heard of them, and read the accompanying movie book.
  • Wow what a surprise, the DM doing an article about how poorly educated our kids are. What next how all single mums only have kids because they wanted a flat? How all people on disability are cheating the system? How all immigrants only come here to take our jobs/ are too lazy so to take our benefits? (pick and choose that one depending on how the economy is at the time). Stay tuned for more stories about how all people north of Watford are scum, all people who don't vote Tory are Marxists and your world is utter crap in a million different ways and they can't wait to tell you.

    Rant over, but don't you just love the Daily Mail.
  • I doubt even better-off kids would read two 19th century writers...:)
  • Q: D'you like Kipling?

    A: I don't know, I've ...
  • [quote=SilentTony]Wow what a surprise, the DM doing an article about how poorly educated our kids are. What next how all single mums only have kids because they wanted a flat? How all people on disability are cheating the system?[/quote]

    Or how the met office doesn't always get the weather right but has a massive budget - I saw this one when researching material for an article about newspaper coverage of global warming.
  • Really lol now that's a funny story.
  • I'm sorry but once cereal is placed in a dish, our cereal packet is put back into the cupboard and NOT placed on the table when we eat.

    After all, if we did that, there'd be no room on table to put the milk bottle, minus it's silver top would there?
  • I thought you just reached your hand into the packet and ate the mini wheats dry, straight from the box. That's what I do.
  • I'm not surprised really that today's children don't know Rudyard Kipling, RS Stevenson etc. Imagine how different the results would have been if they had asked them if they had heard of Michael Morpurgo, JK Rowling, Jeremy Strong or Lemony Snicket? But then there wouldn't have been an article, would there?

    But I do like the idea of putting literature on cereal boxes. I had that idea ages ago. Serial boxes where you read a new part of the story each time. My children always sit reading the back of the boxes while they have their breakfast.
  • Well my kids read books fortunately. A couple of years ago one of them was reading an abridged Dr Jeykl and Mr Hyde and really enjoyed it.
    But they wouldn't read literature on cereal boxes.
  • When I was a littl'un they gave away little books inside boxes of cereal. I learned the days of the week and the months of the year from one such book; can still remember running round the garden singing them.
  • edited April 2011
    the only way to get kids reading is by example. My parents read, I read, my kids read, their kids read - even danny (2½) likes his books - and knows how to handle them!

    If schools were once again allowed to concentrate on the 3 Rs, rather than the content of the stuff they are doing, (whatever we learnt in history, geography etc when I was at (primary) school was immaterial - what was important was that we were reading and writing) more kids would learn to read, then the key to all knowledge would have been given to them. One good thing about the internet is that kids have to read to access it!
  • My dad read the daily newspaper and my mum read a weekly magazine. No books. I used to read books all the time. Even if your parents read, it's no guarantee that your children will - but it probably helps.
  • Same here , Jay.
    I can't ever remember my mum or dad reading a fiction book. My mum only read the paper and Dad sometimes read gardening books. Apart from gardening books there were only three books on the shelf: a dictionary, an antiques book and one of those doctor books that you can check your illness in!
    But I read books all the time especially Enid Blyton, usually given to me by an Aunt.
  • I was the same Jay, we always had the daily newspaper, though I don't remember books. But I think parents taking their young children to the library for books was something all parents did- or seemed to.
  • my whole familly always used to read which i guess gave me the reading bug.
    i can't imagine living a life with no books it's such a scary thought.
  • I was going to say there can be no world without books now due to technology. But then I realised somebody could send a virus. Okay story idea just popped up. A world where print is dead and all literature is on Kindles but the government devises a virus that wipes them all and all the databases in the world. Print books are dug up, found in old houses etc and it becomes a secret society trading them and retelling them with a revived oral tradition. Bit like Fahrenheit 451 for the 21st century.
  • Does that include Newspapers? No more Daily Mail? :)
  • I read a French book quite a while ago where paper started to disintegrate. Books and newspapers, obviously, but also bank notes. Chaos. [spoiler alert] It finishes with a helicopter flying overhead scattering sheets of paper - so you know someone's solved the problem.
  • edited April 2011
    Oh dear, another newspaper article that just made me think 'so what?' After remembering all the real problems going on in the world (including real problems going on in the lives of many children) how can this possibly really matter?

    I love your book idea, SIlent Tony!
    [quote=kateyanne]Does that include Newspapers? No more Daily Mail?[/quote] Let's hope so.
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