Games

Why are England's Kids Illiterate? Because of Video Games Of Course

But there are hundreds of other ways to waste time beside video games, so why them?

By Filip Truta, Games Editor

30th of November 2007, 08:40 GMT

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Well, it sure seems that video games are to blame for everything. Teens steal, break and enter and even kill other people, all this because of video games. Not because our ways of dealing with problems change from one day to the next, due to hundreds of influential factors, but because of video games.

Why do they blame video games alone for the lack of cultural activities among kids nowadays? Had video games remained in their 8-bit form, with the lowest possible graphical detail, the simplest controls and sound, what would nowadays kids have done? They'd have turned to the next best

thing of course.

"Kids hooked on computer games have sent England plummeting down world league tables for reading," The Sun reports. "Ministers claimed pupils spend so much time on consoles that they are not burying their noses in books."

OK, what's wrong with this piece of information here? Of course kids will pick games any hour of the day over books. You can't blame kids and you can't blame video games that's for sure, so who's to blame? No one really, not even parents. How would an uneducated parent know what's good for his child? Let's say the parent is educated, but works 24/7 to pay the bills and school for the young one. How much time does the parent have to keep an eye on his offspring? Sure, there's the option of hiring a maid, but few people can afford that, so it's a vicious circle.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls on the other hand, a very open-minded person as you'll see in the man's statement below, reckons that England is dealing with a governmental issue, as it is the government alone who is responsible for the children's education: "Today's youngsters have more choice now than in 2001 about how they spend their time," Balls said. "Most of them have their own TVs and mobiles and 37 per cent are playing computer games for three hours a day. We all need to help our children of all ages to see that reading can bring fun to their lives."

Again with the reading...? Forget the open-minded thing... I was wrong.

TAGS:

Ed Balls | England | school | violence | illiteracy

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