Are you an intellectual? (college, degrees, school, grades)

[gonefishing]

[LIST][*]Only 14% of adults with a grade-school education read literature in 2002. [*]51 % of the American population never reads a book over 400 pages after they complete their formal education.[*]73% of all books in libraries are never checked out.[*]The average American watches 32 hours of TV every week.[*]The average American reads only eight hours (books, newspapers, magazines, Yellow Pages, etc.) every week.[*]The average American annually spends 10 times more on what he puts on his head than what he puts in his head.[/LIST]
Consider the following:[LIST][*]If you read just one book per month for 12 straight months you will be in the top 25 percentile of all intellectuals in the world. [*]If you read five books on one subject, you are one of the world's foremost leading authorities on that subject. [*]If you read just 15 minutes a day-every day, for one year you can complete 20 books.[/LIST]

[Yorkie_Mom]

I know in my daughters 6th grade class, they have to read at least 20 minutes a day, and then at the end of the month, they get a coupon for a free personal pan pizza of their choice from Pizza Hut. I think it really helps get the kids into reading.
My daughter used to hate to read, so when she needed to read for so much time in her other grades at school, I would do the reading, well then I came up with the idea of taking turns reading pages, and so on, and now she sits and reads for hours when she has one of them good books, and you will know when it is good, because she hates to put it down.
Those are the books I grab when she is not reading them, and turn around and read them myself, just to see what she really likes to read about and what intrigs her. I loved reading as a child, and you get a good book in front of me, I can finish it in a day.

[dreamofmonterey]

Originally Posted by gonefishing

• Only 14% of adults with a grade-school education read literature in 2002.
• 51 % of the American population never reads a book over 400 pages after they complete their formal education.
• 73% of all books in libraries are never checked out.
• The average American watches 32 hours of TV every week.
• The average American reads only eight hours (books, newspapers, magazines, Yellow Pages, etc.) every week.
• The average American annually spends 10 times more on what he puts on his head than what he puts in his head.

Consider the following:

• If you read just one book per month for 12 straight months you will be in the top 25 percentile of all intellectuals in the world.
• If you read five books on one subject, you are one of the world's foremost leading authorities on that subject.
• If you read just 15 minutes a day-every day, for one year you can complete 20 books.

That is actually scary-one book per month~~~~~?
It seems a cultural thing too- in Hawaii they are 97% literate- the highest in all of the US. They also don't watch American Idol~lol.

sunny

[MoMark]

Gee, I'm not so sure I'd define someone as an intellectual by what he reads or how often she does it. (how was that for avoiding using a plural pronoun to avoid the possibility of sexism in a sentence with a singular subject!?!)
Seriously, to me it's more identifiable in how a person communicates and how sophisticated and broad his or her thinking processes are in understanding intense nuance and being able to respond in kind.

[Magnolia Bloom]

Wow! According to that I AM an intellectual! And compared to a few of the posters on other threads, I'm a freakin rocket scientist

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by sunnyhelena

That is actually scary-one book per month~~~~~?
It seems a cultural thing too- in Hawaii they are 97% literate- the highest in all of the US. They also don't watch American Idol~lol.

sunny

I read every day. Yeah, I know it's not cool. I have a library of over 500 books in my house. Some, I've read three or four times. Ivanhoe and such.

American idol? I saw it back last summer, it was ok, but I haven't watched it sense.

I read because it can take me to a place that I have never been and really open my eyes. Is it truth, or fiction? I don't care. It's not here. I can dream, I can cry, I can laugh, I can relate. I cover about 60 pages a day so I'm really running out of material. hahaha. I have a library card, but I don't get down there much, because when I read, I want to keep that experience with me, so I buy books and I keep them. You have to be somebody really special for me to give you a book.

[SunKrist]

Yeah, I guess by those sadly low standards, I am an intellectual. Of course, I would hope to attain intellectualism of a much higher level. I read every day, and most days go by with the TV off. Then again, anyone can be smart. They just have to use their brains

[lilypad]

Definitely. I think I was born reading! Or at least started early. It surely opens up the world to a person. I usually read several books at a time, and have hundreds and hundreds in my library.

[Blue Grass Fever]

Somewhat. I tend to think i'm a 'sophisticated-hillbilly' if that makes any sense.

[gizmo980]

As many of you know, I'm a Librarian... but ironically, I hardly ever read for pleasure! That's partially because I've been in college for so long (5 years of undergrad, 2.5 graduate), and only had enough time to read for school. But since that included tons of literature, being that my degrees are in English Lit & Library Science, it should count for something - LOL.

Now that I'm finally done with school & working in a (teen) Librarian job, hopefully I'll get more "personal" reading time. Just started Jack Kerouac's "On the Road", a book I should've read many years ago... also have a few others on the back-burner, like "Time Traveler's Wife" and the 2 recent Stephen King novels. So yeah, you could call me an intellectual, despite my embarrassing lack of reading lately. Btw, those statistics are pretty sad!