The social significance of the phenomenon of reading in the youth environment. Everything interesting in art and not only Social studies of children's reading in the USSR
Is there a complete picture of children's reading in Russia today? Yes and no. It is very difficult to create a complete and reliable picture of children's reading today.
Is there a complete picture of children's reading in Russia today? Yes and no. It is very difficult to create a complete and reliable picture of children's reading today.
First of all, this is due to the fact that the state is not sufficiently concerned about the problems of childhood. How else can one explain the fact that in the last decade not a single all-Russian sociological study of children's reading has been carried out? In prosperous Europe, for example, Great Britain, in 1994 such a study was carried out immediately after the British discovered that their reading skills of children and adolescents were declining.
The data obtained in the international pedagogical study of student assessment (PISA) then became the basis for a number of government measures. In recent years, Germans in Germany have also "been in a state of shock" from the results that indicate a decrease in the level of reading of young Germans.
However, we are not in a state of shock, if only because the results of the latest international PISA study, conducted in 2000, when Russia first took part in it, have not become public knowledge. It assessed learning outcomes—student literacy in reading, math, and science. The emphasis in a 2000 study was on reading skills. Among students from 32 industrialized countries, Russia ranked 27th. Of course, we can say that these tasks and tests are not sufficiently adapted to our characteristics, but, nevertheless, today we, like the British or Germans before, are faced with an urgent need to understand what is happening today in the reading of the younger generation. Understand in order to take immediate action.
Of course, reading, regardless of whether it occurs in the form of reading a book or text from a computer screen, is the fundamental basis for personality development. Today, fundamental, interdisciplinary research into the process of reading, functional literacy (and illiteracy) of young people and adults, and the study of the psychological, pedagogical and other aspects of reading activity are especially needed. However, fundamental studies of reading, and especially of children and youth, are practically not carried out today.
In the last decade, it turned out that the reading child "dropped out" of the sphere of academic science and became the object of applied research. There are no relevant organizations, reading is almost not studied within the framework of academic institutions, and its research has actually moved from the sphere of fundamental science into the plane of applied fields of knowledge, as well as into the sphere of practical activity. There is, of course, no harm in this, but today we receive knowledge that is fragmentary, superficial and incapable of leading to predictions in this important area. And if the reading of adults and young people is studied by scientists (for example, in the last decade it has been studied by the leading sociologists of VTsIOM), then the reading of children remains, one might say, outside the field of view of sociologists. As a result of the acute need to acquire new knowledge about ongoing processes, those who, by the nature of their work, are most concerned about these problems: teachers, psychologists, publishers and other specialists are engaged in research. The main researchers of children's reading in the last decade are children's librarians.
Librarians - those who are especially concerned about children's reading - in the last decade have been in dire need of obtaining new and multidimensional knowledge about how the child reader changes, how to update library collections, etc. Without receiving such data, librarians began to study children's reading in the context of library services for children. Today, children's librarians have conducted more than a dozen such studies, but the problem remains. A fundamental study of children's reading throughout the country (carried out taking into account the methods used in the international PISA study) is urgently needed. We are in dire need of monitoring the process of children's reading in Russia.
Picture of children's reading at the turn of the century
We will try to build in general terms such a picture of children's reading in today's Russia, which reflects the real processes and trends in the development of children's reading, and which will give us the opportunity to see the features of the near future. And we will create it, relying mainly on library research. This article is based on the results of studies conducted in recent years by the Russian State Children's Library (RSDL) - the main scientific, methodological and research center for library work with children in Russia, as well as materials from regional and local studies of children's libraries in the regions.
Fears about "not reading children", myths about the "crisis of children's reading" are far from accidental, and have a real basis. At the beginning of the 21st century, children really read "wrong" and "wrong" like previous generations. However, they certainly read. At the same time, there is an intensive process of transformation, a radical change in the reading habits of young readers. Almost all characteristics of children's reading are changing: the status of reading, its duration (reading time at leisure), the nature, the way of working with printed text, the reading repertoire of children and adolescents, the motives and incentives for reading, preferred works, etc. The sources of obtaining printed materials are also changing. , information in general and much more.
Our research allows us to talk about the development of a number of trends in children's reading, as well as about the process of changing the old to a new model for the development of book culture by children. Anxieties and fears arise due to the fact that many adults are oriented, first of all, to the old model of "literary socialization". Children, of course, read, but in a different way than before, and also far from the works that were loved and popular with their parents, and especially their grandparents.
The "outgoing model" of children's reading
So, in the reading of children and adolescents today there are very serious changes. Let us designate the features that characterize the old model of reading - the image that so far remains in the minds of many:
- "love of reading" (by which we single out the high status of reading, the prestige in society of a "reader", the obligation to read regularly);
- predominance in the circle of reading books, not magazines;
- a varied repertoire of reading, which includes books of various types and genres;
- having a home library.
In children and, especially, in adolescents, this is added:
- communication with peers about what they read;
- the presence of "literary heroes";
- a relatively small proportion of "pulp" (literature of low artistic merit);
- a positive attitude towards the library (frequent visits to a particular library, the existence of "one's own" or "good" librarian).
The formation of a "new model" of children's reading
In general terms, let's outline a new picture and a new "model" (a set of new features of a young reader) when entering a literary culture. First of all, this picture is extremely heterogeneous: while in some regions of Russia the situation is relatively favorable, in others there are negative processes of rejection of children from printed culture.
We will rely primarily on the results of our sociological study of the reading of schoolchildren in grades 4, 7, and 10. According to our data, on average, the majority of children and adolescents read in their spare time. Only a fifth of the respondents spent up to 30 minutes reading. in a day. A third of the children and teenagers surveyed read from half an hour to an hour. About 42% read for more than one hour a day. Thus, most of the schoolchildren now are children and teenagers who read at their leisure.
But, as a rule, those who love to read are mostly children of primary school age. The older they are, the less time they take to read at leisure, and the less they like to read. If the proportion of those who chose the answer option "I like to read, I read a lot" at a younger age is 43%, then by the 10th grade it drops to 17%, and at the same time the proportion of those who answered among the younger answer option " I rarely read, I don't like" increases from 8% to 17% in the senior classes.
Attitude towards reading is an important characteristic, and it testifies both to the fact that, in general, a positive attitude towards reading is maintained among schoolchildren, as well as to the fact that study loads, often formal, scholastic teaching of literature, together with other factors, lead to that there is a rejection of reading in high school. The older the student, the more "business" reading according to the school curriculum "presses leisure, leaving no time to read your favorite books and just the opportunity to reflect on a new book, to enjoy the process of free reading.
On average, about a third of the respondents answered "I like to read, but I don't have enough time," and almost one in three chose the answer "when I read, I like to read something light, entertaining." The results of our research indicate that only one out of ten schoolchildren surveyed reads nothing but the books necessary to complete the lessons.
In general, the reading repertoire of children and adolescents is quite diverse: the first place in it is the compulsory school classics, fairy tales are for the younger ones, fantasy for the older ones, adventures and "horror stories", detective stories (especially for children and adolescents), books are read with interest. about nature and animals.
If we look at the reading repertoire of adolescents as a whole, then about 40% of it is predominantly entertainment literature, while books of scientific and educational books occupy half as much (21%). Thus, the reading circle of adolescents is "shifted" towards entertainment literature, as well as illustrated magazines.
Not everything that teenagers need is published today and hits store shelves. Readers 10-15 years old are in dire need of modern books about their peers. It is these books that are widely represented in the reading repertoire of schoolchildren in the West. Many works of so-called "social-critical" literature are written and published for them. These are stories and novels that help young readers learn about the world around them, adapt to the realities and problems of modern life.
These books are practically not published today in Russia, and the small part that is published almost never ends up in the provinces. And this circumstance determines the increased interest of adolescents in those books by Western writers that feature heroes of adolescence and youth. Thus, the books of the "Children's Detective" series (K.Kin, A.Hitchcock, E.Blyton, etc.), the series about teenage girls by F.Pascal "School in the Gentle Valley", and also a series of D. Rowling about Harry Potter (fantasy, where elements of a literary fairy tale and school life are successfully combined). In our country, the publication of new books for children and adolescents is complicated by the fact that publishers and distributors do not want to take risks by publishing new, unknown writers; besides, children's books are rather expensive books, since they must be published on good paper, with illustrations. Therefore, publishers and distributors prefer to publish and sell those writers and those works that are known and whose books will be sold out. But the reading repertoire of adolescents is thus deformed, and almost no books are included in reading, which are so necessary for their growing up.
Girls Reading vs. Boys Reading (or Gender Differences)
The older, the greater the difference in the reading of girls and boys.
In adolescence, the reading circle of boys and girls, as they grow older, is becoming more and more different: for boys and young men, literature on sports, technology, computers becomes more and more popular, for teenage girls, and especially girls, love novels become popular. However, in the upper grades, the proportion of those who read literature mainly according to the school curriculum increases sharply (this is a significant proportion of adolescents and more than half of high school students). The “interesting” motive inherent in children of primary school age is leaving, and it is being replaced by the “school assignment” stimulus. It leaves little opportunity for high school students to choose the books they are interested in; and when choosing literature, it is not the advice of a friend (as with many younger schoolchildren and adolescents) that becomes significant, but the teacher's recommendation.
To be continued...
The love of reading in ancient times was considered a disease and was even described in medical reference books.
Reading has not always been considered a virtue. Up to XVIII centuries, a passion for books was considered a morbid addiction, which was even described in the medical reference books of those years.
The appearance of insulting nicknames for people who are keen on reading also belongs to the same era - “bookworm” and “book rat”. And in satirical poem Sebastian Brant's "Ship of Fools", written in XV century, the ship sailing into the realm of stupidity was led by bibliophiles.
Only in the middle of the 18th century did the first public library appear in Europe - the Załuski Library in the Commonwealth. The brothers Jozef and Andrzej Zaluski collected a unique collection of books and manuscripts, which was completed with literature from various countries of the Old World on a strictly scientific basis.
However, the fate of this library turned out to be very tragic: after the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1794 by Alexander Suvorov and the capture of Warsaw by Russian troops, this library, which amounted to 400 thousand volumes, was declared a war trophy and sent to St. .
In St. Petersburg, several thousand books rotted in the cellars, and several thousand more were sold at auctions.
In the end, the rest of the collection formed the basis of the Imperial Public Library in the city on the Neva, which opened in 1814.
Until the end of the 18th century, mostly newspapers, calendars and religious literature were read. However, for a growing group of intellectuals, this was no longer enough. At the beginning of the 19th century, the concept of "exemplary reading" appeared, in which morality and learning had a lot of weight.
With the advent of such literature, the attitude of society towards books began to change to an approving one. And soon the love of literature and the passion for reading began to be perceived as something virtuous and, of course, useful.
There were more and more book lovers.
In 1899, Europe's first Society of Book Lovers was founded.
Pretty soon, similar societies began to appear in Russia.
Even during the Great Patriotic War, Soviet bibliophilia and love for the book did not fade away. In the newspapers of those years, there were often stories about how soldiers saved burning libraries, preserved and handed over copies of old and valuable books to people.
In Moscow, enthusiasts also did not stop their work: on June 19 and 20, 1943, a book market was held in the Writers' Club.
In the newspaper "Leningradskaya Pravda" dated April 11, 1942, a note was placed: "Trench magazines" and "Library of a soldier", produced in 4-5 copies. Among the readers of these publications were collectors who kept trench handwritten magazines and printed army newspapers, sent them to the rear of their relatives for their libraries.
And in the 1950s, a real readership boom took place in the USSR, all the more unexpected because just half a century before that, only a fifth of the country's population could be considered literate.
At the same time, a comparative international study was conducted in the USSR. It showed that the inhabitants of the Land of the Soviets spend almost twice as much time reading books, newspapers and magazines (about 11 hours a week) than the British, Americans, French or anyone else. We read everywhere: in the subway, on the beach, in line, in the park on a bench. And so the famous statement “The USSR is the most reading country in the world” arose, which immediately turned into one of the socialist slogans.
In the USSR they read everywhere
There are many different explanations for the phenomenon of the reader's boom in the USSR. The simplest thing is the lack of vivid impressions. Perhaps those who say that the Soviet people did not have access to many types of leisure activities popular in other countries are right.
Read what you have to. Exemplary Soviet citizens were offered mainly industrial romance: factory heroic epics, stories from the life of foreign slaves of the past and present, the contribution of the individual to the revolution, the moral choice of fighters for the freedom of their people, the Chukchi writer, people of the Middle Ob, etc. But the demand for other books also grew.
More than 70% of the population of the USSR by the end of the 1960s experienced a “book hunger” for quality literature. They satisfied it in different ways, sometimes even illegally: not knowing where to get books by Dreiser, Dumas and Hemingway, people often stole them from libraries, then paying fines for these books. One legal way to solve the problem was through book fairs.
“There is tension in the country with paper!” - this idea in the era of "developed socialism" was very actively instilled in the inhabitants of the USSR. The population was convinced that the forest should be protected, and more books could be printed only if everyone together began to hand over waste paper. The argument about paper tension sounded unconvincing against the backdrop of gigantic circulation of party publications, tons leaving the printing houses.
However, there was nowhere to go, so citizens who wanted to get their beloved Dumas or Verne dragged piles of old newspapers and magazines to waste paper collection points (you can’t carry Lenin’s multi-volume book there). There, in exchange for 10-20 kilograms of old press, one could get coupons for rare literature. The list of especially scarce ones included Dumas, Druon, Conan Doyle, Simenon, Pikul.
The queue at the bookstore in Kiev
Books were also obtained through subscriptions to collected works. However, subscribing to popular collections was no easier than buying women's Finnish boots in GUM, so the subscription was also made out “by big pull” or stood in line, recording at night.
It became more and more prestigious and fashionable to have good literature in the house.
Therefore, some "book lovers" sought to acquire scarce books solely in order to simply have them.
So in the queues for subscriptions or "junk" publications, next to true connoisseurs of literature and avid bookworms, there were those who had the next collection of works suited to the color of the wallpaper or simply wanted to talk with " the right people» to mention the possession of a scarce tome.
Shop of subscription editions in Chelyabinsk. Today in the assortment there is only 55 volumes of Lenin
In other words, by the end of the 1970s, books in the USSR had become a steady and rapidly growing shortage and a subject of speculation. The indisputable truth that a book is the best gift sounded with new meaning. To present a good book meant not only to show attention, to be distinguished by good taste, but also to provide a precious opportunity to read and re-read your favorite work at any time, without leaving your home.
Nowadays, bibliophiles have a lot of opportunities for communication, exchange of books.
In the second half of the 90s, public bookcases began to appear around the world.
Another newfangled trend is bookcrossing. The book can be left in any public place - in a cafe, theater, train, subway, hotel, just on a park bench or in bookcrossing areas. Further fate the abandoned publication can then be tracked in a special social network.
But even these bibliophile trends are no longer able to cope with the noticeable cooling of Russians in reading.
So if a few decades ago in our country bibliophiles were languishing because of the shortage of books, then in our time everything is exactly the opposite: the “bookworms” themselves are becoming a shortage.
The problem of the phenomenon of the “most reading country” is that the authorities used the love of books for their domestic political interests: in some sophisticated way they sought to control the minds of the population - if you like to read, read the works of Lenin or materials of congresses. Did you read? You can read the works of Brezhnev.
In the territory Russian Empire, and consequently on the territory of modern Ukraine, where, as you know, the reader was formed much later than in Europe, for many reasons, research in the field of reading began to be carried out earlier than in many European countries - already at the beginning of the 19th century, almost simultaneously with how the main circle of the Russian reader was formed.
In the first years of the existence of the Imperial Public Library, on the initiative of its director A.N. Olenin, the first empirical (one might say "proto-sociological") studies of reading were begun in Russia, the results of which were reflected in the Library Report for 1817.
The greatest contribution to the study of readers in Russia in the XIX century. introduced by N.A. Rubakin. It was he who first took up the centralized study of readers according to a specially designed program. His main work on this issue - "Etudes on the Russian Reading Public" (1895) - reflected the characteristics of the reading of various strata of society. In this study, for the first time, an attempt was made to take a sociological approach to the analysis of reading, that is, to link the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of reading with the social status of the reader and his living conditions.
The second period of studying the reader came at a time when the whole way of Russian life was changing, the foundations of a new, Soviet state were being laid. During this period, first of all, the possibilities of the influence of reading on personality were studied. Reading was considered as a tool for influencing the inner world of a person. Studies of the psychological aspects of reading came to the fore, which was reflected in the works of D.A. Valiki, S.A. Waldgardt, A. Vilenkin, A. Gayvorovsky, P.I. Gurova, A.A. Pokrovsky, Ya.M. Shafira and others.
It should be noted, however, that theoretical background this direction was laid earlier - in the pioneering work of N.A. Rubakin "Psychology of the reader and books, or bibliopsychology" (1911).
The main methods of studying reading were formed by the beginning of the 20th century. and are still in use today in a modified form. Studying the readership in pre-revolutionary Russia was one of the most developed areas applied sociological research. Interest in this issue in various historical epochs was largely due to the fact that reading is a powerful channel of ideological influence. Started as an initiative activity of enlightenment enthusiasts, from the 20s. 20th century domestic studies of reading are becoming organized, carried out government agencies, research teams.
The third period of the study of reading is associated with the "thaw". It must be remembered that from the late 1930s to the 1960s. There has been virtually no research into reading. This was primarily due to political situation within the country, when any research of a sociological nature was prohibited.
It was only in the mid-1960s that the Department of the Sociology of Books and Reading appeared in Leninka, whose main task was to study reading and the reader. During this period, the first works of such well-known scientists as V.D. Stelmakh, M. Khanin, M.D. Afanasiev, I.N. Belenkaya, M.D. Smorodinskaya, A. Reitblat, T. Volovelskaya and others. and reading in the life of small towns" (monograph, 1973), "Book and reading in the life of the Soviet village" (monograph, 1978), "Soviet worker-reader" (1980).
Since the second half of the 1980s, significant political and socio-economic changes have taken place in the USSR, which have had an impact on the study of readers. It is to this period that the fourth stage of the study of readers belongs.
In the late 80s - early 90s. due to the difficult economic situation in the country as a whole, reading research is being localized. Perhaps the latest centralized action can be considered the study "Reading in your life" .
Unfortunately, in Ukraine during the period of its independence, not enough influence was given to the study of reading.
With regard to the experience of learning to read in foreign countries, then the available sources allow us to say that the situation in this area is very ambiguous.
The well-known fundamental research by Roger Chartier and Gugliermo Cavallo, unfortunately not yet translated into Russian, is devoted to a deep analysis of the history of reading and its distribution in the world. However, the problems of studying reading, the analysis of the evolution of the studies themselves are only touched upon in passing.
However, it is obvious that the most active study of readers (users, clients) in foreign countries began only in the last decades of the 20th century.
Today, reading with varying degrees of intensity is studied both in Europe and in America. The researchers emphasize the difference between the American and European approaches to the study of reading.
The most relevant areas of studying reading in American practice include the following: the study of children's reading; marginal groups; studying the place of reading in the life of the family and community, etc.
Today, research in European countries is very active, especially in Germany, France, Great Britain, the Scandinavian countries, and Italy. Modern data on the reading of Europeans is collected by EUROSTAT - the United Europe organization. In this way, it emphasizes European unity in the field of reading too.
Currently, European and American studies are closely linked to programs to promote reading among non-readers, with projects to support reading that exist at the state level in almost every country.
Today, among specialists, there is a clear need for a comparative analysis of the situation in the field of reading, which pushes for joint international research. While they were few. One of the very first was an international study conducted in 1954 by Gallup in the USA, Canada, Australia, England and Germany called "Are you currently reading books?". This blitz study was a new step in understanding reading as a single, global phenomenon. Researchers were able to compare reading rates in different countries, analyze the situation in their own, and find the reasons for the differences.
Main areas of research within the sociology of reading
In order to study the main trends in the field of reading and develop a system of measures that affect such phenomena as a drop in interest in reading, a decrease in its prestige, a primitivization of reader preferences and motivations, the withdrawal of many reader groups from reading a serious book, etc., and on the other hand on the other hand, fixing such a phenomenon as the emergence of a “new” reader, the formation of a reading elite around the Internet, etc., constant monitoring of reading is required, and the expansion of the structure of institutions that carry out this function. It is obvious that studying the level of reading culture is impossible without studying the entire spectrum of its (reading) characteristics.
In this regard, in modern sociological studies of reading, a number of complex areas are distinguished:
· the study of the reading activity of the individual and various socio-professional and demographic groups against the socio-cultural background;
Studying the problems of the culture of reading and information culture of the individual and society;
· study and analysis of the problems of promoting reading in the non-reading segments of the population;
· studying the influence of the socio-cultural situation on the main characteristics and freedom of reading (recommended reading priorities, censorship, etc.);
study of modern forms of reading (“screen reading”, audio reading) and their influence on the development of a reading culture of an individual;
· studying the activities of the library and other social institutions to promote reading and the formation of a culture of reading;
· studying the influence of reader activity on book publishing policy;
· study of the influence of the culture of book publishing on the formation of a reading culture of the individual .
The domestic sociology of reading is predominantly applied in nature, which results in the lack of a unified sociological theory of reading, differences in the approaches of researchers to the definition of the concept of "reader", incompatibility of methods and results of most studies. Nevertheless, the accumulation of an extensive bank of empirical data now makes it possible to move from predominantly descriptive research to analytical and prognostic research that reveals trends in reading and the reading habits of various social groups.
In the last decade, attitudes towards reading have changed significantly in many countries around the world. Reading, education and culture have come to be seen in developed countries as national development priorities. The years 2003 - 2012 were declared by the United Nations as the decade of literacy. Understanding the importance and value of reading by the world community has led to the fact that today many developed and developing countries are implementing a policy of supporting and promoting reading, which is based on supporting the reading of the younger generation.
In recent decades, in Russia, as well as in many countries of the world, the process of a decline in the level of reading culture of the population continues. As a result of the cardinal changes in the life of society that have taken place over the past twenty years, the status of reading, its role, and attitudes towards it have changed dramatically. Recent studies by Levada Center sociologists indicate that processes of a “reading crisis” are developing in Russia. Since the 1990s the stable literary tradition on which previous generations relied is gradually being lost.
Children's reading today is an area where many problems already exist and continue to accumulate. Public awareness of this trouble is reflected in the media, whose statements about children's reading can be qualified as "moral panic". There are and continue to accumulate a number of myths: statements such as “children do not read”, “children read only Harry Potter”, “the computer has completely replaced the book” and others continue to be replicated by many media (sound from the TV screen, heard on the radio, replicated in the periodical press). Such statements, which have a number of completely objective grounds, began to excite both the general public and professionals related to the problem of reading.
More and more children and adolescents in Russia today read little or read differently, i.e. not in the way that parents and teachers would like. The old one is being replaced by a new “model of child-adolescent reading”, or “model of literary socialization of the personality”, as we called it in the second half of the 1990s. this process. This means that almost all reading characteristics of the younger generation are changing. These changes gradually accumulated, and today it is necessary to see the dynamics of this process.
Several years ago, while preparing for the All-Russian Congress in Support of Reading in 2001, for the first time in recent decades, we raised questions that would have previously seemed simply impossible: “Is reading in Russia in danger? If so, which social groups? What are the reasons, and what will be the consequences, if we read less?” . We will answer some of these questions in this article.
Methodological approaches to research
Children's reading can be viewed from the standpoint of different sciences: pedagogy, psychology, sociology, philosophy, cultural studies, history, semiotics, book science, library science, etc. The most complete is an integrated approach, which usually combines psychological-pedagogical and sociological approaches. The complexity of modern social processes requires methodological reflection, even in the case when, it would seem, a purely empirical, applied research is being carried out. In this regard, in denoting the processes that have taken place in children's reading over the past twenty years, we will rely on a number of approaches developed in our research during this period.
Reading, regardless of whether it occurs in the form of reading a book or text from a computer screen, is the fundamental principle of personality development. In our work, the emphasis is primarily on “free reading for schoolchildren” - reading at leisure, and not on aspects related to teaching reading at school (we will only touch on this topic, since this issue requires a separate study). Leisure reading of schoolchildren is exactly the kind of reading that allows individuals to master the world book culture, form their own inner world and build their individuality. It is “free” reading that gives many children and adolescents the opportunity, through self-education, to compensate for the shortcomings and inferiority of the socio-cultural environment.
In order to more accurately and fully understand the ongoing processes, all-Russian studies are needed. Since the phenomenon of reading (and “non-reading”) is very complex, fundamental, interdisciplinary research into reading, functional literacy (and illiteracy) of young people and adults, and the study of the psychological, pedagogical and other aspects of reading activity are especially needed today. However, in our country, in recent decades, reading has hardly been studied at academic institutions, and its study has moved from the sphere of fundamental science to applied fields of knowledge, as well as to the sphere of practical activity. And if the reading of adults is nevertheless studied by scientists (for example, in the last decade it has been studied by the leading sociologists of the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) / now the Levada Center), then the reading of children and adolescents remains, one might say, outside the field of view of sociologists. (Psychologists and teachers who fundamentally study children's reading are also few in the country).
Now that children's reading performance is deteriorating, there is a particular need for comprehensive nationwide studies of children's reading, and these have not been conducted in almost fifteen years. We are in dire need of monitoring and interdisciplinary research into the reading of the younger generation. Meanwhile, in different countries of the world there are many studies of children's reading, which are carried out by specialists from different sciences. A special contribution to the study of reading abroad for several decades has been made by researchers-educators who study various aspects of schoolchildren's reading in the context of educational reforms in the developed countries of the world.
At the turn of the century, teachers of our country also joined these comparative international studies in the field of assessing the quality of education for schoolchildren. The first data on the "reading literacy" of adolescent schoolchildren in Russia were obtained only at the beginning of the new century in the international studies PISA-2000, PISA-2003. (PISA-2000, PISA-2003) . The emphasis in a study conducted in 2000 was on the reading skills and abilities of schoolchildren. Among students from 32 industrialized countries, Russia ranked 27th. In a study conducted three years later, the level of "reading literacy" of adolescents was even lower.
However, the methodological approaches and techniques in these studies are based on the study of the level of "schoolchildren's reading literacy", while free or leisure reading of schoolchildren is not considered in them. We have already said above that this reading is a very important component of personality development. In this regard, in this work, the task was set to outline the picture of children and adolescents reading at their leisure, to trace the dynamics of the process of reading of the younger generation since the early 1990s.
It is very difficult today to create a complete and reliable picture of children's leisure reading due to the lack of large-scale studies (as discussed above). However, in general terms, such a picture can still be created with the help of a secondary analysis of the results of regional and local studies. During the 1990s small studies in this area were conducted by teachers, psychologists, sociologists and other specialists. The main researchers of children's reading in the 1990s and at the turn of the century were children's librarians.
Over the past two decades, the author and other specialists of the Russian State Children's Library (the main scientific, methodological and research center for library work with children in Russia) have been studying various aspects of reading children and adolescents (including, together with children's libraries - regional centers ). The collection and systematic compilation of information on the state of children's reading has been carried out at the RSDL since the mid-1990s. .
Our results allow us to say that the 1990s. and the turn of the century became a turning point for the reading of Russian children and adolescents. To see this process more fully, let us outline the conceptual framework and methodological approaches of our research. We consider the state of children's reading from the standpoint of sociology, psychology and pedagogy of reading, the theory of personality socialization from the perspective of protecting and realizing the rights of children (according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child); in the process of mastering the values of spiritual culture by a person when passing them from generation to generation.
Below we will rely on a number of results of our comprehensive, library science and sociological research, including: the All-Russian competition of readers' sympathies "Golden Key" (1998 - 1999), within the framework of which a study of children's reading was conducted in a number of regions; “Problems and Trends in Reading for Children in Russia in the Conditions of Development of New Information Technologies” (1999-2000); "Analysis of the structure of reading interests of children and adolescents: problems of reading, publishing and accessibility of periodicals and non-periodicals" (2001 - 2003); All-Russian competition of readers' sympathies "Golden Key" (2002-2003), "Children and periodicals at the beginning of the XXI century" (2002); "Children and Libraries in a Changing Media Environment" (2002-2004); "Rural child: reading, book environment, library" (2002-2005). We will also draw on the results of regional studies of children's reading in Russia that we have collected and summarized.
Over the past two decades, we have been developing research approaches, applying and improving a number of survey methods, which made it possible to draw conclusions about the nature and dynamics of the ongoing processes.
Let us highlight the factors that have a particularly strong influence on children's reading: school education (including teaching "reader literacy"); "book environment" (including the availability of libraries with good collections); "leaders of children's reading" - teachers, educators, librarians; system of communication channels; visual and "electronic" art culture, and, in the short term, the Internet.
Children's reading is a complex phenomenon, and its condition is influenced by the whole complex of factors listed above. Over the past two decades in Russia, almost all of these factors have significantly influenced children's reading. But during the period of "perestroika" and in the next decade after it, children's reading was especially strongly influenced by the state of the socio-cultural environment, including the availability of printed materials.
"Book Hunger" and Deprivation of Childhood: Problems of the Recent Decades
Children and adolescents, due to age characteristics, do not take part in many types of personality-forming activities. Reading can and often does play a special role in the lives of young people, much more important than in the lives of adults, because it is a source of indirect life experience.
The reading status of children and adolescents today is part of the general problems of reading and literacy of the Russian population as a whole. In our country, reading manifests processes and trends that were typical for many developed countries of the world in the 1980s-1990s. XX century. These general processes were also superimposed by specific problems characteristic of the period of late socialism and the transition period. The fact that we may be entering a period that will lead to a "children's reading crisis" was discussed in the early 1990s.
Consideration of the problems of children's reading, we will begin with one of them, which became especially acute in the early 1990s. This is the underdevelopment of the socio-cultural environment (i.e. lack, inferiority of resources) necessary for the development of the individual. If a child grows up in such an environment, then they talk about "social deprivation" personality. The lack of books needed for development at home, the lack of educated, literate adults who can help, the lack of a good library nearby - all this creates unfavorable conditions for the child, in which it is difficult for him to grow up as an educated person.
Even at the beginning of the reforms, in the period of the late 1980s - early 1990s. - many children were in dire need of books, both at home and in libraries. Researchers have written about the decline in children's reading during these years. Thus, the data of probing studies of the Research Institute of Books showed that, according to parents, 33% of children do not like to read. Sociologists have noted a decline in the prestige of reading among adolescents.
The book policy, which for many years was built on ideological grounds, divorced from the real interests and demands of readers and formed according to the “leftover principle”, eventually led to a chronic shortage of the most different types literature. In particular, the demand for children's literature in the 1980s. was satisfied on average by 30-35%.
How does the "book shortage" affect children's reading? In 1989-1990 State Library of the USSR. IN AND. Lenin (now the Russian State Library) conducted a survey of young readers of Pionerskaya Pravda, in the questionnaires it was proposed to name the 10 best books for reprinting, indicate which libraries the children go to, what they read. The researchers received over 10,000 letters from children.
Here are some of the results of this study, which are still relevant today. “The situation is extremely alarming: there is a big gap between the actual and desired reading of children and adolescents. Subjective wishes, literary orientations of children are not implemented or are implemented to a very limited extent in the circle of their actual reading. Meanwhile, the formation and development of the reading activity of children is possible only when the supply exceeds demand and is richer than it. Acquaintance with the world, which is so necessary for the spiritual formation of a child's personality, cannot be achieved through books, since the demand for children's literature is universally satisfied only by 30-35%, while for adults this figure approaches 50%.
The materials of the study indicate a huge need for a book, and depending on the type of settlement, the picture changes: from a large city to a village, the “literary resources” of the environment are deteriorating. At the same time, only in Moscow and Leningrad, up to 11% of children managed with books from their home libraries, while in other places there were significantly fewer of them. Most children and adolescents were forced to use state funds. At the same time, children were sometimes enrolled in several libraries at once, but could not find the right book. The motive of the social infringement of childhood is heard in many letters that came to the newspaper. Thus, when children mastered literary culture, a process of their social deprivation took place. Let us also note such a specific characteristic of the child as a reader: he needs the book “here and now”, i.e. immediately, as he switches quickly from one to the other. And if the child does not receive a certain book on time, then either he will take another one, or he will stop reading altogether.
The researchers noted that the constantly unsatisfied reading demand leads to another negative consequence: in the structure of free time of students, the share of time devoted to reading is reduced, and it does not become a favorite pastime for a large number of children and adolescents. In addition, the need for reading does not receive development, since in order to master this complex type of activity, the child must constantly enrich his experience of communicating with book speech. The researchers stated that the discrimination of social groups entering the age of literary socialization has already borne its sad fruits. Negative changes were recorded in the actual and desired reading of scientific and educational literature by children and adolescents that occurred in the period of the 1970-1990s. (since the research of the State Library of the USSR named after V.I. Lenin "Book and reading in the life of small towns" conducted in the 1970s) . These changes were associated with the fact that in 1988 scientific and educational books accounted for only 13% of the total number of publications for children and youth. The share of all children's literature in the general publishing flow did not even reach 5%, and small circulations of 100-200 thousand copies. (which are now perceived as very large!), essentially made this literature in the vast territory of the country inaccessible to most children.
Among the books read by children and adolescents at the time of the survey, there were quite a few books of the so-called "waste" series (books published in millions of copies over several years, starting from 1974, in exchange for handed over waste paper). It is thanks to this series that many works popular with children and adolescents became available to them (“Fairy Tales of Scandinavian Writers”, E. Seton-Thompson “Stories about Animals”, “Tales of Foreign Writers”, D. Curwood “Tramp of the North”, J. Verne "The Mysterious Island", R. Giovagnoli "Spartacus", works by A. Dumas, J. Verne, A. Belyaev, A. Conan-Doyle, R. Kipling, A. Lindgren, S. Lagerlef, M. Twain and others .).
About 80% of children of this age used public or school libraries, because children's books were already read at home. The conclusions of the researchers: "the book shortage hinders the development of the need for self-educational reading ... the difficulties experienced by children's libraries are mainly due to the critical state of the funds, the absence or small number of copies of works that are in great demand among the children's readership" . Based on the discrepancies identified in the study between the actual and desired reading of children and adolescents, their requirements for library collections, the researchers of the Russian State Library formulated specific recommendations for the release of new publications: books were named that are in great demand among children, but most often not available at home. and public libraries.
Gradually, thanks to the development of the book market in the 1990s. and the publication of many children's books needed by children and adults, the problem of "scarcity" was gradually solved. But the books were becoming more expensive, and many parents could not afford them. Many families were on the brink of survival. A study conducted by the Independent Institute for Social Policy in collaboration with UNICEF showed that families with children have the greatest depth of poverty. By the mid 1990s. it finally became clear that there was a problem of large-scale poverty of the population, since the corresponding social group at that time exceeded 30% of the population. It turned out that one of the most socially vulnerable groups are children and families with children, who in almost all regions of Russia make up more than half of the total number of the poor. The appearance of a second child in a complete family increases the risk of poverty up to 50%. Families in small towns and villages practically did not have children's books at home. This situation has worsened over the past two decades. Thus, according to the data of our study of the reading of rural schoolchildren in 2002-2003, 33% of children either did not have any books at home, or had up to 10 books; 65% of children had up to 30 children's books.
The situation of "book hunger" was aggravated by the fact that in many regions of the country the book distribution network stopped working, most bookstores in small towns and villages were closed or redesigned. Many families practically stopped subscribing to periodicals, and the children were left without their own magazines. Being in conditions of survival, most of the poor families with children today cannot afford spending on books, and in these conditions, libraries - children's, school, rural - have remained and remain the main free source of books and periodicals for the younger generation.
Another significant factor - education reform - contributed to the "book hunger". School reform developing in the 1990s and continuing to this day, has led to an urgent need for new books - textbooks and literature for the preparation of school assignments, in reference and encyclopedic literature. We, as well as other library specialists, have recorded this acute need since the early 1990s. "Business reading" of schoolchildren - children and adolescents - reading on the instructions of the school, the growing need to find the necessary books, has led to an increase in readers in libraries - both school and children's, and others. And if at primary school age free reading prevailed among many children, then, as the schoolchild grows older, business reading begins to prevail. This urgent need for schoolchildren to receive books and a variety of information in the 1990s. (to a large extent, even today) could not satisfy school libraries, which, as a rule, have small funds. Schoolchildren, not receiving the necessary literature, began to apply to other libraries. A stream of readers with business inquiries poured into children's libraries. At the same time, the collections of children's libraries could not meet these ever-increasing needs, since the implementation of this function has always been the main task of school libraries. However, many children's libraries were forced to complete this literature. In the second half of the 1990s. this problem has become particularly acute. It has not been completely resolved even today, since for this the authorities need to radically change their view of the role of the school library in the educational process, recognizing it as the main resource component of the reform and the center of the school educational process.
Back in the early 1990s, we spoke about yet another aspect of the problem of childhood deprivation in the sphere of culture. This is the fate of the traditional cultural institutions associated with the book. “The crisis state of libraries, including children's and school libraries, is intensifying. Today, in the conditions of rising prices for books, the possibilities of completing libraries with a variety of literature necessary for the development of a child are reduced, while in many regions of the country the library is practically the only guaranteed source of literature. And if it stops functioning, many children will be left without books at all. Unfortunately, by the beginning of the new century, the situation described above had not changed in many respects.
Mid to late 1990s. more than a third, and by the beginning of the new century, about two thirds of other children also said that they could not find the books they needed. Many social groups of children and adolescents, boys and girls have been in a situation of deprivation - "book hunger" - over the past two decades, and many are in it now. throughout the 1990s. most of the public and school libraries were in an extremely difficult situation, having no funds for acquisitions. This situation only worsened at the beginning of the century, and now, in the middle of the first decade of the new century, the problem of overcoming the "book hunger" for many children in small towns and countryside not yet resolved. The rights of children to read and receive high-quality library services remain unfulfilled today.
Children's Reading Trends in the 1990s
After the Russian State Library in the mid-1990s. the sector for the study of children's reading on a national scale was closed, and studies of children's reading became local. As a result of the urgent need to understand what and how is happening with children's reading, in the 1990s. relevant research began to be carried out by librarians who worked in children's libraries.
We have already mentioned above that since the early 1990s. researchers of the Russian State Children's Library, together with regional children's libraries - centers for library work with children in the regions, conducted local and interregional studies of children's reading, the information environment and media environment, library work with children, as well as organized and held conferences, collected data on the development of this areas, including those related to children's library research (published and unpublished materials). In the course of this work, general methodological approaches were developed, methods similar in a number of parameters were used, including those related to the study of children's reading, which largely made it possible to compare data from different studies and trace the dynamics of ongoing processes.
As a result of this work in the late 1990s. we have outlined the following processes and trends: differentiation, fragmentation, “fragmentation” of readerships has increased; the influence of regional and local sociocultural differences on reading has increased; interest in the printed word decreased among children and adolescents, the prestige of reading among peers began to fall; the share of reading in the structure of free time of children and youth has decreased; the nature of reading in children and adolescents has changed; “business reading” (according to the school curriculum) began to dominate over “free” (leisure) reading, especially from adolescence until graduation; in the reading of children and adolescents, gender differences have increased; adolescents have undergone changes in the motivation and nature of leisure reading; this reading became much more strongly influenced by the lower layer of audiovisual mass culture; there was a "deformation" of the reading repertoire in many social groups; the "quality of reading" (the level of reading culture) has decreased in many children and adolescents.
By the turn of the century, children's reading had changed so much that its condition began to disturb not only specialists. Below we outline the situation in general terms, reflecting the real processes and trends in the development of children's reading in today's Russia, which will also make it possible to see the features of the near future. Describing this situation, we will rely mainly on our own research, as well as on a number of materials from regional regional children's libraries.
Children's reading at the turn of the century
Let's outline the general picture and a new "model" (a set of new features - characteristics of a young reader) for the entry of a personality into literary culture. First of all, this picture is extremely heterogeneous: if in some regions of Russia the situation is relatively favorable, in others, negative processes of rejection of children from printed culture are taking place.
We will rely primarily on the results of our sociological study of the reading of schoolchildren in grades 4, 7 and 10 (conducted in 2001 in a number of regions of Russia) .
According to the data obtained, on average, the majority of children and adolescents read in their spare time. Only a fifth of the respondents spent up to 30 minutes reading. in a day. A third of the children and teenagers surveyed read from half an hour to an hour. About 42% read for more than one hour a day. Thus, most of the schoolchildren at the turn of the century are children and adolescents who read at their leisure.
But, as a rule, those who love to read are mostly children of primary school age. The older the children, the less time they take free reading, the less they like to read. If the share of those who chose the answer option “I like to read, I read a lot” at a younger age is 43%, then by the 10th grade it drops to 17% and at the same time the share of those who chose the answer option “I rarely read, do not love" increases from 8% in the lower grades to 17% in the older ones.
On average, about a third of the respondents answered “I like to read, but I don’t have enough time”, and almost every third chose the answer “when I read, I like to read something light, entertaining”. In 2001, only one out of ten schoolchildren surveyed did not read anything other than the books needed to complete the lessons.
Our data are similar to the data of an international study that teachers received in the same period of time. Thus, according to the PISA-2000 study, 42% of Russian schoolchildren agreed with the statement that reading is one of their favorite activities. 31% of our fifteen-year-old teenagers, according to their answers, find it difficult to read the book to the end; 57% of students noted that they read only to get the information they need. And 13% of schoolchildren indicated that they never read fiction on their own.
Attitude towards reading is an important characteristic, and it testifies both to the fact that, in general, a positive attitude towards reading is maintained among schoolchildren, as well as to the fact that study loads, often formal, scholastic teaching of literature, together with other factors, lead to that in high school there is a rejection of reading. The older the student, the more “business” reading according to the school curriculum” crowds out “free”, and a student in high school has almost no time to read his favorite books and just think about a new book, they do not get joy from the reading process itself .
In general, the reading repertoire of children and adolescents is quite diverse: in the first place in it is the compulsory school classics, fairy tales - for the younger ones, fantasy for the older ones; Adventures and "horror" stories, detective stories (especially those intended for children and teenagers), books about nature and animals are read with interest. If we look at the reading repertoire of adolescents as a whole, then about 40% of it is predominantly entertainment literature, while scientific and educational books occupy half the volume (21%).
Differences in the reading of girls and boys begin at primary school age. From adolescence to youth, there are more and more differences in the reading repertoire of boys and girls: literature about sports, technology, computers is becoming more and more popular among boys and young men, novels about love are becoming popular among teenage girls and girls.
In the upper grades, the proportion of those who read literature mainly according to the school curriculum increases sharply (this is a significant part of adolescents and more than half of high school students). The “interesting” motive inherent in children of primary school age is leaving, and it is being replaced by the “school assignment” stimulus. It leaves little opportunity for high school students to choose the books they are interested in; and when choosing literature, it is not the advice of a friend (as with many younger schoolchildren and adolescents) that becomes significant, but the teacher's recommendation.
At the turn of the century, various magazines became popular in the reading of children, and especially adolescents and youth. Comics and "Disney" magazines attract readers of primary school age, especially boys. At the same time, magazines designed specifically for children are more popular with girls, as are magazines about animals and nature. In recent years, many children and adolescents have been attracted to such publications as crosswords, puzzles, puzzles, and this is observed in different age groups. Active appeal to periodicals of children and adolescents begins already at primary school age, but especially intensifies by adolescence. Often children and teenagers buy periodicals on their own. At 10-13 years old, this is usually a spontaneous, situational choice. The older he gets, the more aware he becomes. The repertoire of periodicals for teenagers, boys and girls is dominated by youth and women's entertainment-oriented magazines. They are read primarily by girls, while boys prefer other sports and technical publications (about cars, computers, etc.). Some teenagers also named publications of an educational nature - "automobile", as well as "computer" magazines. But at the same time, educational magazines are read much less today than before.
The results of our research testify to the growth of the readership of periodicals. Even those children and teenagers who are oriented towards book culture and visits to libraries like to read magazines of a predominantly entertaining nature. Such magazines as "Cool", "Hammer" and other similar publications are especially popular. But many teenagers buy "whatever comes across." For those who are younger, the children's magazines "Klepa", "Svirel" are in demand, for those who are older - "Cosmopoliten", "Rovesnik", as well as the newspaper "Arguments and Facts". In reading there are also "television" magazines and newspapers ("Color TV", "Seven Days", "Antenna", etc.). The secret of these preferences is simple: most of these publications are sold in kiosks and stalls, and they are relatively inexpensive (unlike most popular science magazines, available only by subscription and in libraries). Thus, the reading circle of adolescents is "shifted" towards entertainment literature, as well as illustrated magazines.
While magazines are often bought and sometimes borrowed by teenagers from libraries, the sources of books are mainly home, as well as public and school libraries. Thus, according to the above-mentioned survey of students in various regions of Russia in 2001, in 43% of cases, schoolchildren read books from their home library. In second place was the public (public) library (18%), in third place was the purchase of books (16%). Adolescents, boys and girls also borrow books from friends, and with age, the share of this source more than triples (from 6% to 21%), it ranks second among older readers after the home library. The last place among the sources of obtaining books is the school library, which is used by about every ninth schoolchild. In general, the total share of "home" sources of books for children and adolescents at the turn of the century was approximately 60%, the share of "library" - about 30%.
As for villages and small towns, libraries are practically the only sources of obtaining books; they are used by an average of 70% to 95% of the child population. But in the last decade, the problem of library acquisition has sharply escalated. The uneven distribution of book resources persists, and distribution channels often become worse as one moves away from central Russia. At the same time, the needs of schoolchildren for new, relevant literature have increased dramatically, which is associated not only with changes in reading, but also with the ongoing reform of the school. However, as we said, the school library serves as a source of books for only one in nine students. Thus, in many regions. In Russia, the needs of children and adolescents often remain unsatisfied.
Answering the question about what books the student would like to read but cannot find, two-thirds of the respondents named them. For children aged 11-14, these are: literature about nature and animals (16% of respondents), adventures and horror films (11%), fairy tales (7%), for adolescents - science fiction (8% of respondents), books on technology (7 %), history (4%), various popular science literature. The variety of topics on which children need books is enormous. It would seem that there is a lot of literature on these topics. But it often does not fall into the regions. However, the specificity of children and adolescents as a reading group lies precisely in the fact that they cannot, like adults, put off their unfulfilled reading needs for the future, and as a result, they simply switch to other means of communication and ways of spending their leisure time.
For many libraries, one of the options for such a “replacement” of books has become magazines. As a rule, it is periodicals that enable libraries to fill in the gaps in the book fund, promptly satisfy the information needs of readers. In many libraries, periodicals make up the vast majority of new acquisitions and are sometimes almost the only source of acquisitions.
In the last decade, in many regions of Russia, only libraries are the only organizations where readers can receive and read books, newspapers and magazines for free. It can be stated that today the groups of regular library readers include children and adolescents who are much more involved in book culture than their peers. In terms of the level of intellectual and emotional development, "cultural baggage" they compare favorably with their peers who do not visit libraries. Obviously, in order to fulfill their tasks as information, cultural and educational centers, libraries need significant funds for acquisition and modernization.
The outgoing "children's reading model"
Fears about "unreading children", myths about the "crisis of children's reading" are far from accidental, they have a real basis. At the beginning of the 21st century, children really read “wrong” and “wrong” like previous generations. However, they certainly read. At the same time, there is an intensive process of transformation, a radical change in the reading habits of the younger generation. Almost all the characteristics of children's reading are changing: the status of reading, its duration (reading time at leisure), the nature, the way of working with printed text, the repertoire, the motives and incentives for reading, preferred works, etc. The sources of obtaining printed materials, information in general are also changing. and much more.
Our research allows us to say that at the turn of the century, the process of changing the former and the transition to a new model of mastering book culture by children began and is ongoing. Let us designate the features that characterize the old model of children's reading (the image that still remains in the minds of many): “love of reading” (by which we single out the high status of reading, the prestige in society of a “reader”, the obligation to read regularly); predominance in the circle of reading books, not magazines; a varied repertoire of reading, which includes books of various types and genres; having a home library.
In children, and especially in adolescents, this is added: communication with peers about what they have read; the presence of "literary heroes"; a relatively small proportion of literature of low artistic merit ("pulp"); a positive attitude towards the library (frequent visits to a particular library, the existence of "one's own" or "good" librarian).
We fix, to a certain extent, a gap in the transmission of this literary tradition. Anxieties and fears of parents, teachers and, to a much lesser extent, librarians arise due to the fact that many adults are oriented, first of all, to the old “model of children's reading” (“model of literary socialization” of the individual). Children, of course, read, but in a different way than before, and also far from the works that were loved and popular with their parents and, especially, with their grandparents.
Very serious changes are taking place in the reading of children and adolescents today, and the current decade for children's reading is becoming a period of the formation of a new model of children's reading - a new image of the young reader.
Book publishing and reading repertoire for children and adolescents
Above, we have already said that the question of the repertoire of reading young people is very important. As a rule, to a large extent it is set by book publishing. Scarcity problem – the shortage of children's literature in the 1990s was gradually resolved, but not completely, since the general trend of book publishing in the last two decades has been to reduce the circulation of published books. In addition, in the context of the development of the book market, a number of other problems arose.
Earlier we dwelled on the problem of the shortage of books for children that existed on the eve of "perestroika". The Soviet Union was not a world leader in the production of children's literature: in the general repertoire of the 1970s-1980s. it was no more than 4-5% in terms of names (which is 4-5 times less than, for example, in France). We have already said that at the end of the Soviet period a comprehensive program for the production of children's literature was adopted.
Book publishing for children in the 1990s characterized by both positive and negative trends. Let us refer to the data of bibliologists who analyzed the statistical data for 10 years, from 1991 to 2000. In the first half of the 1980s. in the RSFSR, about 2000 titles were published, in 1991 this figure dropped to 1610 titles, then stabilized at the level of 1800-1900 titles, in 1996 it began to grow again and in 2000 reached 4123. By 2004 it had already amounted to 6002 titles.
In the first half of the 1980s. the circulation was more than 400 million copies (and, according to the data given earlier, during this period, many children said that they were in dire need of children's books). In the early 1990s. there was a process of rapid decline in the total circulation of children's books: from 395.1 million copies in 1991 to 47.2 million in 1997, after which it began to increase.
In the 1990s children's literature is one of the dynamically developing sections of literature. From 1991 to 2001, the number of children's literature titles published annually increased 3.2 times (from 1610 to 4123 titles). It was children's books that began to be intensively produced by non-state publishing houses, which in 2000 produced 93.5% of all titles of children's literature (while state publishing houses reduced the number of published books by 6.4 times). But in the same period there was a reduction in circulation. Thus, the circulation of works of fiction for children and youth decreased from 1991 to 2000 by 6.4 times. In terms of average circulation, a children's book suffered in the 1990s. the greatest damage: in general, the circulation of book publications decreased six times during this period (from 47.9 thousand copies in 1991 to 7.9 thousand copies in 2000), while children's books - 13 times (from 226.8 thousand copies in 1991 to 17.3 thousand copies in 2000). The decrease in the average circulation was accompanied by a constant increase in the price of literature for children from the repertoire of book publishing, there was a "washout" of inexpensive books.
As a result, in 2000, each child had a little more than one copy of a new children's book (three books for preschoolers, 1.5 copies for junior schoolchildren, one copy of a book for middle and older children). This means that in many regions of Russia, especially in rural areas, children do not see new books for years.
Significant changes have taken place in the structure of the children's book repertoire. During the Soviet period, it was dominated mainly by literary and artistic publications: in 1980, for example, their share was 90% in terms of titles and 94.8% in terms of circulation. These were primarily works by children's writers of the USSR; in the top five most published in 1918-1986. The authors included S. Marshak (1887-1964), K. Chukovsky (1882-1969), S. Mikhalkov (b. 1913), A. Barto (1906-1981) and N. Nosov (1908-1976). Russian classics studied at school, works of world literature (including the adventure genre) were widely published, and much less often - works by contemporary foreign authors. Book publishing was focused primarily on "educational" books. In the first place - the story "How the Steel Was Tempered" by N. Ostrovsky (536 editions), then the books - "Two Captains" by V. Kaverin (330 editions), "The Young Guard" by A. Fadeev (276 editions) , "The Captain's Daughter" by A. Pushkin (228 editions) and "The Tale of a Real Man" by B. Polevoy (221 editions).
The leaders of literary and artistic book publishing for children in the Soviet era were works for middle and senior school age. The age structure was balanced: publications of works of art for preschoolers accounted for (by title) 31.3%; for younger schoolchildren - 26.6%; for middle and senior school age - 28.9%; for young people - 13.2% (since readers of this age also read literature for adults). Non-fiction works occupied a modest place: the share of publications of reference, popular science, practical and even political and educational literature accounted for only 10% in titles and 5.2% in circulation. In the 1970s - the first half of the 1980s. there was an acute shortage of scientific and educational books for children in the country.
The most significant structural changes in the Russian children's book repertoire were the expansion of the range of reference, popular science, practical and educational publications for all ages and the return of Orthodox children's books (mainly pre-revolutionary). Other "returned" children's literature also began to be published. During this period, private publishing houses focused on the deficit that had developed in the previous period and actively published in the first half of the 1990s. a variety of licensed popular science series and encyclopedias.
Literary and fiction books continued to dominate in the children's repertoire of the 1990s, although their share was noticeably reduced: in 2000 it was 76.4% in titles and 74.6% in circulation. During the 1990s the number of published translated authors decreased (from 38.8% in 1992 to 14.5% in 2000), and the number of domestic authors increased three times. Until the mid 1990s. The market was intensively saturated with publications for younger schoolchildren, and then for preschoolers. There were also many serial publications. The ratio between publications for different age groups has changed significantly, the structure of the repertoire began to change gradually, a disproportion arose between publications addressed to different age groups: a lot of books for preschoolers began to be published, a lot for younger schoolchildren and few for teenagers.
Despite the appearance of a noticeable number of translated publications, the reading circle of children of preschool and primary school age has remained quite stable: in the ratings of the most popular authors, there are still those published in the Soviet era (S. Marshak, A. Barto and others. ); E. Uspensky (b. 1937) and G. Oster (b. 1947), who received recognition until the 1990s, also joined their ranks.
In the modern Russian book repertoire, the section of children's literature does not occupy a key position: in 2000, its share was 7% in terms of titles and 15.1% in terms of circulation. But as in the repertoire of the 1990s. in general, and at the beginning of the new century, there are few new names and significant works in all age subsections, which speaks of the problems of the modern literary process. The release of books by new authors for publishers is always associated with a certain risk, and therefore most publishers in recent decades have taken the easy and profitable path. They began to publish series and children's books that have already become popular abroad and in our country (such as D. Rowling's Harry Potter series). The systemic "crisis of children's literature" today is spoken of by both children's writers and children's literature researchers, critics, and literary scholars.
Worst of all for two decades was with teenage literature. Critics of children's literature and researchers wrote back in the early 1990s that teenagers urgently need books about modernity, with heroes - teenagers, boys and girls. During the difficult period of the reforms, works for teenagers were little created and almost never published. In addition, the unique magazine "Children's Literature" was published rarely and with great difficulty, where information, literary criticism, and critical materials about books for children were published.
In 2000 E.I. Golubeva analyzed data on published works of art for children and adolescents, written by domestic authors of the 18th-20th centuries and published in 1994-1998. As a result: in five years, the works of 910 different authors were published; of these, 722 authors published only one book in five years (!); 351 authors have books published outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg (in cities where books are published in relatively large print runs and where a book distribution system has been established); only 188 authors have published more than one book in five years, of which only 56 have three; only 44 authors published books annually; 16 of them are classics of Russian pre-revolutionary and Soviet literature; 12 authors usually belonged to the classics of Soviet children's literature (A. Barto, A. Volkov, A. Gaidar, V. Gubarev, E. Dragunsky, Yu. Koval, S. Marshak, N. Nosov, V. Suteev, D. Kharms, G. Tsyferov, K. Chukovsky); 16 authors who worked during this period (K. Bulychev, L. Geraskina, D. Emets, B. Zakhoder, S. Kozlov, S. Mikhalkov, V. Orlov, G. Oster, V. Pismak, M. Plyatskovsky, S. Prokofiev, G. Sapgir, V. Stepanov, A. Usachev, E. Uspensky, G. Yudin).
E. I. Golubeva believes that in the next decade the collections of children's libraries will contain editions of works by a fairly limited circle of authors, and there will be few works themselves (for example, during the analyzed period, only the story “Chuk and Huck). In addition, from the above list of annually published authors, it can be seen that almost no books by domestic authors were published for junior and senior schoolchildren. And, although after a few years the situation began to gradually improve, however, we agree with the point of view of E.I. Golubeva: “The results of the analysis also show that there is a real danger of stopping the development of literature for children in the near future if the state and society do not show due interest and take radical measures to support it.”
Mass culture and the deformation of the reading circle of adolescents
Today, the number of problems associated with children's reading continues to grow. So far, we are still living in a fading literary tradition. But this time is rapidly running out, which is especially noticeable in the state of reading of the younger generation. In recent years, there has been a deterioration in a number of reading characteristics of children and adolescents, a decrease in their level of literacy. Teachers are full of anxiety about the simplification and coarsening of schoolchildren's speech, their use of primitive clichés, which often abound in essays. The consequence of a largely scholastic, formal approach to teaching classical literature was a decrease in the interest of schoolchildren in the classics, despite the fact that they are well mastering a variety of clichés and standard points of view. The decrease in the role of literature in the socialization of children and adolescents also occurs in connection with changes in the free reading of young people. Today, many works of foreign adventure literature, which were traditionally included in the leisure reading repertoire of adolescents, have already disappeared from reading. It is often dominated by magazines; at the same time, the influence of "electronic culture" on reading is also increasing.
In today's situation, the process of socialization of the individual becomes especially difficult. Along with the main social institutions education and upbringing - by family and school - "electronic educators" play an increasingly important role in it. Television plays a big role in the lives of children and teenagers. In the last decade, it has occupied the first place in the leisure structure of the younger generation, both in the city and in the countryside. The repertoire of programs and programs watched by teenagers is wide and varied. Schoolchildren like to watch humorous programs, programs about travel, adventure, nature and animals, the younger ones prefer cartoons, the older ones prefer music programs and sports news. They love watching TV series and feature films. Many teenagers are active fans of games, contests, quizzes. Thus, television is both education, recreation and entertainment. It is also the source of commercials full of clichéd images - stereotypes. Movies, serials and commercials set certain rules and patterns of behavior, affect the consciousness and subconscious.
In recent years, we have collected data on how visual culture affects reading in children and adolescents. From our point of view, this influence is manifested in the following: the perception of printed text and information changes, it becomes more superficial and fragmented, “mosaic”, “clip” (as a result of which it is more and more difficult for a child to concentrate on a multi-page text, especially stories and novels) ; reading motivation and the repertoire of reader preferences are changing (under the influence of television and video viewing, interest in topics and genres that are widely represented on the television screen and in video rentals - detective stories, thrillers, action films, fantasy, "horrors", "film novels" increases); preference is given to printed materials with a widely presented video sequence (hence the popularity of illustrated magazines and comics among children and teenagers). In addition, there is a “cliché”, simplification and coarsening of speech, since children do not master the language of the classical heritage, including the language of Russian and foreign classics, which used to be a significant part of the reading repertoire of children and adolescents.
Due to the fact that both the repertoire of modern book publishing and the repertoire of television are focused on action-packed works of mass demand, it is not surprising that action-packed entertainment literature dominates in the reading of children and, especially, adolescents, works written according to the scripts of serials and films are of interest ( "movies").
By the end of the last century, the series "Children's Detective" and "Black Kitten" became especially popular among children and adolescents; Today, interest in comics continues to grow, the share of which in the reading repertoire of younger students is increasing significantly. Interest in the literature of the adventure genre, which is the most feature teenagers, in the last decade has also shifted towards detectives, adventures, fantasy, "horror". Teenage girls and girls became readers of sentimental literature for women and "ladies'" novels.
These processes are also manifested in the regions. The results of studies of children's libraries confirm the general trend: the reading of children and adolescents is increasingly divided into two components: "business" and "free". The latter is focused mainly on entertainment and recreation, and the preference is given to magazines, primarily entertainment. Thus, in the Volgograd region, the magazines Cool-girl, Stuchka, Marusya, etc. are in the first place among teenage girls. In the rating of literary preferences, the first places are given to adventure literature, fantasy and science fiction. For boys, "horror" is in third place, for girls - in fifth, detective - in seventh, while non-fiction is in twelfth place, classical literature and poetry in girls is in tenth place, and for boys - in fourteenth.
According to the preliminary data of our study on the reading of adolescents in villages in a number of regions of Russia in 2002-2003. Detectives, horror films and comics are becoming popular with children and teenagers. The choice of teenagers is increasingly determined by the series. Classical literature, especially foreign literature, is almost not present in reading. So, almost no one named, for example, D. London, A.-K. Doyle, M. Twain, A. Dumas or C. Bronte, M. Mitchell. On the other hand, detective stories for children and adults, for example, novels by D. Dontsova, are widely represented in the reading repertoire of rural teenagers. Many teenagers read such magazines as "Cool", "Hammer", "Thing", they also read the newspaper "AIDS-info" and similar publications, they prefer magazines with a lot of pictures. But far from always, these and other similar magazines bring to their young readers "reasonable, kind, eternal." Most of them educate young people about sex and erotica, stimulating and exploiting their interest in these topics (parents are especially active against this type of publication today). At the same time, developing, popular science magazines remain inaccessible to most children and adolescents in villages, towns and small towns (since they are relatively expensive, they are not sold in kiosks, they are also not discharged home, and only some of them can be read in libraries).
Today, the process of differentiation, fragmentation of social groups, changes in the skills of their reading behavior is especially intensive, in connection with which we can predict significant changes in the behavior of many groups of readers - children, youth and youth - in the very near future. Crisis processes in one way or another occur in the reading of many social groups. The "pressure" of the market has led to the fact that new domestic writers do not get into the literary process, and therefore the repertoire of fiction for teenagers and youth is not updated much. Thus, in the reading of many children, adolescents, and youth, either obsolete or primitive texts of fiction often predominate (as in adults, all the same detective stories, "horror stories", as well as comics). The level of reading culture continues to decline among many social groups of the younger generation, especially among those who live in unfavorable conditions.
Today, as a result of declining attention to childhood, children are increasingly feeding on substitutes for the lower strata of mass culture. Trivial literature - a variety of "fiction" - primitive thrillers ("horror"), detective stories, action films, fantasy and comics are increasingly replacing and replacing the best domestic and world children's literature. Thus, the lower layer of mass culture, actively stimulated and promoted by television, book publishing, periodicals, influences the socialization of children and adolescents, seemingly imperceptibly, but very significantly.
Another aspect of this problem is the influence of postmodern culture on children's literature, which manifests itself in the fact that books created for children are often written not so much for children as for adults. In such a "children's book" ideas about good and evil are shifted, such behavioral patterns of children and adults are shown that can serve to ensure that moral values and norms are "blurred" in children and adolescents. Previously, in children's literature, the line between what was good and what was bad was clearly drawn, children's books provided moral patterns that were understandable to children and presented humane models of behavior. And this is despite the fact that many books for children published in the Soviet period were too edifying and didactic, or politicized. But today, many "books for children" can only be tentatively classified as children's literature, since they demonstrate value relativism and vague values. In this regard, the question arises of what role this literature will play in the socialization of the individual?
Book, computer, Internet: preferences of teenagers
In large cities, to some extent, new media act as an alternative to television. The modern teenager has a great opportunity to choose one or another way of spending leisure time. These are various means of mass communication and electronic mass media. It is children, adolescents, youth and youth today who are the most active social groups that easily master new information technologies. They do not have those psychological barriers that interfere with adults, because they are more receptive to the new. Many of them get acquainted with the computer at an early age. This is a new "multimedia generation" ("Internet generation"), which has different values, behaviors and orientations in the world of information. According to Western researchers, today children can choose their own "lifestyle" very early, in the development of which the media play an important role today.
The sociocultural environment significantly influences the leisure preferences of the child, his orientation in choosing one or another type of media. The media environment surrounding the younger generation continues to expand: the number of communication channels is increasing, and their functions are being redistributed.
Today, the attitude of adolescents to information in general, including the book, their communication habits and behavior is changing significantly. As a result of the education reform, the need for schoolchildren to receive a variety of information and literature for their studies has increased dramatically and continues to grow.
The most significant changes in the development of the new telecommunications environment are taking place in large cities, especially in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Here, many children and teenagers are already living in a new information and media environment. These groups of children have already gained experience in interacting with a computer and the Internet, have new communicative knowledge and skills, i.e. are more “advanced” and adapted to changes in the information space.
What characterizes their informational behavior and reading? In order to get an answer to these questions, at the turn of the century, we conducted a small probing sociological study in Moscow. Its results showed that today changes in the reading of adolescents are both quantitative and qualitative. Reading turns out to be one of the sensitive social indicators reflecting changes in the way of life and new mass communication habits and behaviors of young Muscovites.
Young readers of large cities, especially boys, are actively mastering new technologies, using all information channels and information sources available to them. Another typical feature of modern teenagers is the desire to play on the computer. Such an opportunity is provided to them both at school and at home, with friends, in Internet cafes and computer clubs. Earlier, in the late 1990s, we recorded the beginning of a “gaming boom” among teenagers. Today, this wave is spreading from large cities to the Russian provinces. The turn of the century and the beginning of the new millennium were marked by the growth of Internet users, who are most interested in young and young users.
Questions like: “Will children read if they have computers?”, “Will a computer replace a book?” and the like are a simplification of the situation, since in this case reading books is opposed to either television and video viewing, or computer games. From our point of view, the situation is much more complicated. Not only the process of reading printed materials by children is changing, but also many characteristics of reading in general. And, most importantly, the character and attitude of children and adolescents to the whole complex of media - books, periodicals, television, radio, as well as to multimedia and the Internet - is changing.
The determining factor in choosing a book or "screen culture" is the availability of "screens" to the child, their presence at home (including those belonging to the child himself); with friends and elsewhere. The influence of "screen culture" on reading is manifold. The reading of the younger generation is becoming more functional and utilitarian. The “reading model” of a teenager is becoming more and more similar to the “reading model” of an adult: some books are for study (work), some are purely for recreation and entertainment. Less and less in the reading circle of a teenager, a young man and a girl, there is less and less literature “for the soul”, self-education and self-education.
Part of the time that was previously spent on reading has been replaced by TV viewing and computer games. Many adolescents have a pronounced motive: “I want to read something light, entertaining,” and this motive is closely related to the preference for leisurely magazines with an abundance of illustrations (which also indicates the impact of visual culture on reading). Novels are read much less than before; in the repertoire of teenagers reading, there are few novels of foreign classics, which for decades have attracted previous generations (including their parents). Modern teenagers have practically no literary heroes.
The book is increasingly perceived by young people mainly as a source of information. Today they get pleasure not from reading books, but from computer games and magazines, or having fun and communicating on the Internet. The environment and the availability of various channels of mass communication, printed and other materials have an increasingly strong influence on their attitude to the book, reading habits and preferences. Electronic culture, including video production and a variety of multimedia, are usually perceived as competitors to the printed word. Of course, at the first stage of mastering a new type of media and the new opportunities that it provides, there is a keen interest in it, and at first glance it seems that one type of media is being completely replaced by another. However, later, when the tool is mastered, it will "embed" in the structure of life, and take its place in it.
In general, the printed book will not go away, and reading as well. However, we would like to put the accents differently: the point is not what medium will be chosen - a book or a computer, where the text will be located - on paper or on a monitor screen, the point is different: what exactly will be read there, how the process of perception will go and understanding of the text and what information, what knowledge, what culture and art will be represented by different types of media for the development of a young personality.
So, in the reading of children and adolescents today, very serious changes are taking place, which are of a profound nature. Many parents, educators, librarians are still focused on the old literary tradition and model of children's reading, while most of today's children and adolescents have very different preferences and a different perception of book culture. They treat the book not as a "textbook of life", but as one of the media and mass communication. Thus, to some extent, there is a gap between generations in the transmission of the tradition of literary culture. We assume that by the beginning of the second decade of the new century, children's reading will be completely transformed. New "models of reading" will be established - the reading activity of children and adolescents in the context of their new mass-communicative and informational behavior. And this changed reality today sets new tasks for educating a young reader as a “Reader”.
International studies of educational achievements of students PISA-2000 and PISA-2003 were aimed at obtaining data necessary for a comparative assessment of the functional literacy of 15-year-old students from different countries in the field of mathematics, reading, natural science (in 2003, tasks were added to the tests to solve problems) .
See: Studying the knowledge and skills of students in the framework of the International PISA Program. General approaches. Kovaleva G.S., Krasnovsky E.A., Krasnokutskaya L.P., Krasnyanskaya K.A. Center OKO IOSO RAO, Moscow 2001; The main results of the international study of educational achievements of students PISA-2000 (short report); International Student Assessment Program: Monitoring Knowledge and Skills in the New Millennium// http://www.centeroko.fromru.com/pisa/pisa_part.htm
Chudinova V.P. The book universe of childhood // Reading Russia: myths and reality. Sat. articles on the problem of reading. M.: Liberea, 1997. S. 81-89; Chudinova V.P. Studies of children's reading and library work with children in children's libraries in the 90s. // "What? Where? How?..." Inform.-analit. bulletin. Issue 2. / RGDB. M., 1996. S.47-72.
Reading children and adolescents at the end of the 20th century: Based on materials from regional studies: Sat. scientific works. / Comp. I. A. Butenko, E. I. Golubeva, V. P. Chudinova. M.: RGDB, 1999; Children's reading at the turn of the century: problems, research, forecasts. Sat. scientific works. Part I. Reading to children and adolescents in a changing socio-cultural situation. Children's reading and new technologies / Comp. E.I. Golubeva, V.P. Chudinova, L.P. Mikhailov. M.: RGDB, 2001.
We designated this factor as "book environment", while teachers use the term "educational environment" (speaking about the same characteristics of the sociocultural environment). Books for children: social needs and their satisfaction / / Ibid. Sat. 60. M.: Book. Chamber, 1990. S. 20-28; Chudinova V.P. Literary socialization of children and adolescents: negative processes // Sociological studies. 1992. No. 2. P.85.
In addition to the studies of the RSCL, we rely on a number of studies of the central children's libraries. See: Reading children and adolescents at the end of the 20th century: Based on materials from regional studies: Sat. scientific tr. / Comp. I. A. Butenko, E. I. Golubeva, V. P. Chudinova. M.: RGDB, 1999.; Children's reading at the turn of the century: problems, research, forecasts. Sat. scientific tr. Part I. Reading to children and adolescents in a changing socio-cultural situation. Children's reading and new technologies / Comp. E.I. Golubeva, V.P. Chudinova, L.P. Mikhailov. M.: RGDB, 2001.; Have you read? Read? Will they read? /Comp. E.I. Golubeva. M.: RGDB, 2004. and others.
The study interviewed 594 people. (255 boys and 339 girls) in large and medium-sized cities in six regions of Russia; the study was conducted by a group of specialists from the Russian State Children's Library and the central children's libraries of the regions commissioned by the publishing house "Children's Literature"; project leader - Dr. Sociology. Sciences I.A. Butenko. A sociological survey of students in grades 4, 7, 10 of general education schools was conducted in March 2001; 26% were surveyed - students of the fourth grade, 42% - students of the seventh grade and 32% - of the tenth grade in one of the secondary schools in a number of settlements: Fryazino, Murmansk, Naro-Fominsk district, Sergiev Posad, Ryazan, Ivanovo, Tver, Smolensk. The results obtained, from our point of view, reflect the picture of children's and youth reading in large and medium-sized cities in the central part of the country.
Poryadina M.E. "School story": a genre that does not exist. There. pp.55-66; Voskoboynikov V.M. In the Mist of Crisis: Some of the Controversies of a Contemporary Children's Edition. There. pp.69-73.
Golubeva E. I. Reading is a matter of state. Children's reading at the turn of the century: problems, research, forecasts. Sat. scientific works. Part II. Children's literature. Psychological and pedagogical problems of children's reading. Problems of support and stimulation of children's reading: approaches, programs, methods. / Comp. E.I. Golubeva, V.P. Chudinova, L.P. Mikhailov. M.: RGDB, 2001. S. 11.
Children and reading at the turn of the 21st century: Literary tastes of modern teenagers: Results of the study / Volgograd region. children's library. Comp. O.I. Kharitonov. - Volgograd, 2001.
The most striking and talented example of such children's and, at the same time, far from being children's literature is F. Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy.
The study of the Russian State Children's Library "Problems and trends in the reading of children in Russia in the context of the development of new information technologies" was carried out in 1999-2000. (the project is supported by the Russian Ministry of Culture); The results of the study are published in the book: Children and Libraries in a Changing Media Environment. Moscow: School Library, 2004.
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