I think I will talk about parenting, at least a bit, at Donna's suggestion.
On our first day of class in Children's Literature in 1975, we were assured that children who were read to were better readers. I have seen that claim repeatedly over the years, but this is a classic example of correlation versus causation. People who read out loud to their children a lot are different from those who read to their children a little are different from those who don't read to their children at all. Even though it intuitively seems right that reading to children will help them learn to read earlier, faster, better, there isn't actually any evidence for this. It would be hard to test in a way that removed the genetic element. Adoptees, perhaps. I don't think that work has been done.
Then why do it, if there's no guarantee it's going to make your child a better reader?
Because it's fun. It's one of those things that builds a family culture, something that people do together. Singing in the car may not make your child a musician, cycling together may not make her an athlete. We hope that all of our actions contribute to our child's development, education, character, because part of the fun of parenting is watching little things grow. But being a family is an end in itself. Reading aloud is an end in itself.
Even at a distance of 60 years, I can remember the shared pleasure of a book being read to me. It brings the child into the world of literacy as a place that's valued by loving adults. I attribute a lot of literacy learning difficulties to the unaccountable failure of the educational environment to awaken desire in the child. We learn things incomparably faster and easier when desire is harnessed.
ReplyDeleteIn "Freakonomics" it was suggested that simply having books in the home was enough. I remember that because it made me feel better that I hadn't spent all that much time reading to my children. There were full bookcases though and not the pretty, artfully arranged ones. The message that literacy was valued was there, just delivered differently, perhaps?
ReplyDelete" I attribute a lot of literacy learning difficulties to the unaccountable failure of the educational environment to awaken desire in the child"
ReplyDeleteThe failure, IMO, is largely because so many 'educators' do not themselves place a high value on learning. This is why everything has to have a bunch of other things added to it to make it Relevant.
We read aloud. (I got a crick in my back reading the Mirkwood chapter of The Hobbit while sitting in the hall--that's longer than some books.)
ReplyDeleteThe kids vary quite a bit in how much they read as adults.