We now have about six months of readership data on the book Unstructured Time. Its really too early to characterize the readership, but some early data seems to indicate that readers can be in two groups. Those who are older and those who are younger. Hah, this is not a risky way to group the readers as nearly everything can be sorted out by young versus old.
But anyway, here is the take on the matter.
The older people really like the read. They tell us that it all brings back their memories of how they played and worked as children and they go on to say that this time of their development was valuable to them. They think that some of the learnings from that life style are lost in todays times. The authors realize this too, but they also realize that the rural environment, with its unstructured time probably missed some aspects for development due to its relative isolation.
The younger people who read the book are not enthusiastic readers. They appear not to relate to this type of unstructured life, because to them, its all rather hypothetical.
So, this represents a challenge to us to consider how such a topic can be presented to the younger audience to assist them in their identifying themselves with this aspect of child development.
Unrelated, but nevertheless a good read is a book rediscovered in my library. The title is FROM THE LAND AND BACK by Curtis Stadtfeld. It is a book written about farm life in the 1950s and how technology changed all that. Look for it in your local library.
