Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
It's a damn good thing, too. Excellent for kids to get a good start. Now...how can we get them to have super teeth, AND a love of reading? :-)
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Years back, I was out to dinner with folks at an SF convention. The subject of declining literacy came up.
I asked "How many of you had parents who read
to you when you were little kids?"
Every hand at the table was raised.
My mother read to me as a toddler. I've always read anything that didn't read me first, and I know where I got the habit. Mom told me when I was older that I got the idea somewhat before I was fully able to do it myself. She'd fast forward in the story she was reading to get me to bed and get on to other chores, and I'd say "No, mommy! You skipped this part!", and point unerringly at the part she'd skipped over.
I contrast that with my SO's bother Bill. He was a voracious reader. His wife was not. He'd come home from work and plunk himself in front of the TV while he waited for dinner. Guess what his sons also did? (I watched his older son go into an alpha trance as soon as the TV was turned on...)
Enormous numbers of folks never learn to see reading as fun. It's a chore they do because they
have to, and they do only as much as they have to.
The best way I know to instill a love of reading in kids is to read
to them, and
demonstrate that it's fun. Learning to read is
work, and like any other effort, people need to see a benefit to willingly make the effort.
______
Dennis