Over the last fifty years, reading has suffered a precipitous decline. The blame has been widely placed on electronic entertainment, but there is perhaps a more subtle and subversive force undermining the reading landscape: the association of reading with “homework.”
Ideally, our first reading experiences are warm and fuzzy. We snuggle with loved ones while listening to enchanted tales… Reading = JOY. So, we go to school. Little by little, our parents stop reading to us, feeling that it is more important to promote our independent reading skills. Maybe it’s the struggle of learning to read, maybe it’s the hours spent reading dry material designed to educate rather than inspire, maybe it’s just the responsibility of having to read; In either case, those early underlying connections between reading and pleasure are now beginning to be replaced by feelings of pressure, responsibility, frustration, even boredom.
To build, restore, or maintain a love of reading, we must continually reinforce the subliminal association between books and pleasure. We must look for ways to ignite, and then preserve, an internal fire, one that makes children want to read rather than feel compelled to.
But how to start, when electronic entertainment offers such seductive and addictive competition? The answer lies in making active choices to support the JOY of reading every day.
Here are some ways:
– Surround children and expose them to big books. Keep them everywhere: in the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room, even in the car.
– Snuggle up and read aloud together as soon as possible, and continue to do so, even as the kids get older.
– Provide a warm and welcoming reading environment by minimizing distractions such as background noise or bright lighting.
– Take regular trips to the library or bookstore to explore the tactile and sensual pleasures of books.
– Give away books and encourage others to do the same.
– Provide books that satisfy individual passions, whether it’s baseball or ballet, trucks or horses, great fiction and nonfiction abound in all categories.
– Don’t force-end a book that doesn’t resonate – there are too many great books that will. Help children find the ones that speak to them.
– Don’t use books as weapons (“If you don’t ___, then don’t read tonight”).
– Allow your child’s personality and learning style to influence reading choices. Auditory learners may like audiobooks, visual learners may like graphic novels. Comic books, magazines, how-to books: it’s all reading, and if done with genuine interest and passion, it’s all good.
– Take note of your child’s response to reading material and strive to provide more of the same, whether it’s books by the same author, in the same genre, or on a similar topic. Ask your local librarian or bookseller for guidance.
– Look for ways to make practical connections with books. Cook recipes, listen to music, watch a movie or play, explore art, do crafts, etc. inspired by books and stories.
In the words of author/educator Daniel Pennac, “A child does not have a great desire to master the use of an instrument of torture, but make it a means of his pleasure, and soon he will not be able to prevent it!”