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In your opinion is reading War and Peace the same accomplishment as listening to the audiobook? Why or why not? (fedinsfw.app)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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I love audiobooks and consume them frequently but I personally don't call it reading. It doesn't feel like the same activity to me. What do you think?

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[–] 15 points 2 months ago (3 children)

One of my kid's schools had a wild debate about this for their yearly charity "Readathon." The kids get sponsors to sign up to pledge the amount of money they will donate for each book the kid reads during the readathon. Parents are expected to sign off that their kid really did the reading for all the books they put on their sheet. Other than that its on the honor system. They've been doing it for 60+ years.

The kids don't get any prizes but they do get certificates of recognition for various levels of achievement. It came up this year, that some parents count audiobooks and others don't. They have been doing it like this for ome years now but it was never discussed before. The rules don't say anything about audiobooks but they were written back when audiobooks weren't common.

We had some seriously intense discussions in the Parents Charter (the name for our PTA) and lots of people have strong feelings about this! In the end the agreement was that transparency is best so the form has been updated with one side for audiobooks and one side for books. For purpose of donation they are counted the same.

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  • [–] 17 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    This is one area where I think the distinction is actually important!

    For kids, they're learning to read. Heavy, repeated practice decoding and interpreting printed characters is the point.

    Ultimately the activity of reading changes as you get older, into receiving new information and perspectives. At that point an audiobook is pretty much at parity. But earlier on in elementary and even middle grades, kids really need the actual reading IMO.

    I have a relative who vastly prefers audiobooks. But his wife has to keep reminding him, don't let their daughter take that shortcut. She has to actually learn to read (and read well) first.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago

    This is a tricky one. I've already posted a comment that may seem VERY contradictory to this one, but in this case, I think the kids should actually be reading.

    The point of the readathon (aside from fundraising) is to get kids to practice reading, not to consume as much media as possible. Kids are already really good at that.

    It would be like the band teacher allowing kids to listen to someone playing the trumpet instead of practicing themselves.

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