\n<\/p>\n
Too much of the literature taught in UK schools is putting children off reading and thrillers should become part of the curriculum, one of the world\u2019s biggest selling authors has argued.<\/p>\n
Lee Child, the British writer of Jack Reacher novels, which have sold more than 100m copies worldwide, said: \u201cI can totally understand why, if you\u2019re an English teacher and you\u2019ve read all your life and you love this stuff and you\u2019ve been to university, then you want to introduce the big, major masterpieces. But that\u2019s too much for kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added it was even more of an issue because of social media: \u201cNow it is just so fragmented and so urgent and so breathless and so when do you get the time to sit and read?\u201d<\/p>\n
He has also argued thrillers should be on the curriculum and in school libraries. He said: \u201cYou should have whatever is compelling and whatever gets people into the habit of reading. Then you can have the fancy stuff later, of course, but don\u2019t start with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Child was speaking at HMP Doncaster, a category B prison, where he was having literacy sessions with inmates in what he said he hoped would become a national programme. Many had been put off reading at school, he said.<\/p>\n
It was his third Doncaster visit and at the sessions the men were gripped. Each had been encouraged to write and Child listened to how it went and offered constructive feedback.<\/p>\n
He told the men to write about themselves. \u201cMy books are about Jack Reacher but they\u2019re really about me,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s what I want to be, what I want to do, how I would live if I could.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span>Child at a prison literacy session at HMP Doncaster listening to an inmate\u2019s feedback.<\/span> Photograph: Gary Calton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Speaking later, Child said the prisoners were often people \u201coutfaced by big works of literature\u201d during their formal education and that everyone stood to benefit from the sessions.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cIdeally, what we wanted to do was make everybody\u2019s day a little bit easier in the prison world. Anecdotally, what we\u2019re hearing is that if they\u2019re reading all day or they\u2019ve got a writing task to do, then the atmosphere is much calmer, is much more relaxed, everybody has a happier time.\u201d<\/p>\n Child said he believed increasing literacy skills would help to cut reoffending rates. \u201cDeep down, I think what every person in Britain wants is a safer community,\u201d he said. \u201cWherever they are, they\u2019d like less crime, more safety around them. That is what kicked this off. How do you do that?\u201d<\/p>\n Child, who relocated to the UK from the US after the re-election of Donald Trump, also stressed the project was not about being soft on crime. \u201cI\u2019m not a soft-hearted person,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not a do-gooder. I\u2019m a thoroughly practical person and this is a thoroughly practical thing.\u201d<\/p>\n John Butler, a prisoner taking part in the sessions, said he was enjoying them and had been writing off the back of them. As a young man he got into trouble because he was not learning at school, he said.<\/p>\n <\/span>Lee Child and the justice minister Jake Richards (right) hope to establish a regional model for the sessions.<\/span> Photograph: Gary Calton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Child hatched the literacy sessions plan with the Labour MP for Colne Valley, Paul Davies. Together they pitched it directly to the prisons minister, James Timpson.<\/p>\n So far they have been to five prisons, with Davies also hosting democracy sessions. \u201cThe proposal is to go to 20 and then establish a regional model,\u201d said Davies. \u201cObviously Lee will be involved, but he\u2019ll also be working with a lot of other key writers as well. The idea is that someone like Lee is a catalyst. He inspires people.\u201d<\/p>\n Child was joined at the sessions by Jake Richards, a justice minister with responsibility for sentencing. \u201cWe sometimes forget, when we\u2019re sitting in the MoJ [Ministry of Justice] and we look at prison numbers, that behind every single number there is a person who has committed an offence and is serving their time \u2013 and that\u2019s right but also has real vulnerabilities and a story,\u201d Richards said.<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing what we can do to ensure that those individuals when they leave here have the skills and the confidence to contribute and not return to a life of crime is a big challenge and we\u2019ve got a lot more work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Too much of the literature taught in UK schools is putting children off reading and thrillers should become part of the curriculum, one of the world\u2019s biggest selling authors has argued. Lee Child, the British writer of Jack Reacher novels, which have sold more than 100m copies worldwide, said: \u201cI can totally understand why, if<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[650,681,700,2577,1067,334,588,10404],"class_list":{"0":"post-38196","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-boost","9":"tag-child","10":"tag-curriculum","11":"tag-lee","12":"tag-reading","13":"tag-school","14":"tag-schools","15":"tag-thrillers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}