I’ve lots of ideas about reading and writing, how necessary these skills are to a free society, how essential they are for students to do well in school, how important it is to combine reading with learning, how critical thinking shapes our emotional and mental awareness. Because too few Americans can read and write above a 5th grade level, because too few Americans appreciate the wide-ranging and deep knowledge that readers gain…too many Americans are gullible and ignorant because of their low reading skills.
Reading is about far more than pleasure, though pleasurable activities are at the core of a healthy life. Reading is also about learning – the Who, Why, Where, When, and How of people, places, and events we cannot personally access. One reason that the U.S.A. is falling behind other countries in innovation, progress, happiness, health, and equality is that fewer Americans are able or willing to pursue the careers that require rigorous study and training. Another reason is that we have at least three decades of a purposeful systematic assault on public education. Another reason is that those for whom a large ignorant population is essential to their goals and power – oligarchs, billionaires, authoritarians, fascists – are content to let the public education system corrode and to push the narrative that science, expertise, university, libraries, free speech, and social programs are part of a ‘communist plot’ to undermine democracy.
Reading for pleasure and reading to be informed develop the reader’s comprehension, curiosity, inquiry, vocabulary, knowledge, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, willingness to understand complex things, willingness to explore unfamiliar ideas and people.
Parents: If your children are behind in reading skills or need to read more often outside school, here is some helpful advice.
- Children should hear adults reading aloud. Start early, before the child is talking. Adults should not only read aloud to children but should also read aloud to everyone in the room whenever a letter or article has interest. Show the importance of reading. Reading aloud is one way for children to learn pronunciation, expand their vocabularies, and develop analytical thinking.
- Join a public library and use it regularly.
- Purchase eBooks as well as print copies from local and online shops. Watch for the big sales that local public and school libraries have and take the children to select books. You shouldn’t have to spend much money on books because of the sales on new and used books. Many people offer free books.
- Children must grow up reading books outside class times. While I agree that every teacher in every subject area must incorporate reading skills and good reading habits in their lessons and assessments, unless young readers read at home and on their leisure time, they will not grow an appreciation for reading. The goal is to develop reading comprehension and appreciation for the written word.
- Explain to young readers that most of the people we share our world with have no books, few books, or have only the books that their government allows. Reading, writing, and publishing books without government interference is essential to free societies.
- Don’t get into the irritating habit of correcting your children’s mispronunciations as they read aloud to you. Wait for the young readers to ask for help. Reading and sharing times should be safe and happy times.
- Avoid the arguments that occur on social media and in parent-school groups about the best programs for teaching reading and writing. No one program is a perfect fit for every student. Students who have diagnosed reading and language deficits can get appropriate help with school resources. The key is to keep them reading. Let your children struggle. Where there is no struggle, where people give up too easily, when we insist on easy wins and gains, we hold ourselves back from the progress we desire.
- Screen time and book time are two different things. Other than eBooks which you can download onto a screen, articles and activities are written at low reading skill levels. The authors intend for readers to digest them quickly and accept the information without question. This is enough reason for parents and children’s guardians to forbid social media. Social media targets specific audiences, is biased, and is proven to be addictive. Children’s and teenagers’ reading skills and critical thinking skills cannot improve with time on social media. In fact, their skills will deteriorate. However, the real harm is addiction and propaganda. When we read books, we form questions and seek answers, we develop critical thinking, we are in control. When we peruse social media, we are the prey.
- Starting about age ten, show the children how to keep a reading journal. Not only should they list the titles of authors of books they read, but they should journal their responses to the texts. They can write questions that the reading generates, ideas that the reading ignites, and vocabulary words that they want to learn how to use. Journals are where learning truly happens. They became keepsakes as well.
If you are a classroom teacher, a parent or grandparent, or a library reader, we appreciate all that you do to help children become informed, happy, critical thinking learners and readers. We all benefit when the next generation is one that seeks knowledge, appreciates freedoms from government interference, loves to learn and understands the struggles, and shares their own stories.