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Reading at Risk
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From: Nancegar at aol.com <Nancegar>
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 09:11:42 EDT
Joy of reading, yes! It seems to me that's one of the vital issues here: we need to support and promulgate the sheer joy of reading, the delight in finding treasures in books. Whatever happened to the schools that set aside 20 minutes a day some years ago during which everyone -- custodial staff and all -- read? Whatever happened to the magical times when elementary teachers spent 20 minutes or so a day reading a beloved book to students and talking about it, not as an academic exercise, but as an amazing shared experience? What happened to parents who read to their kids -- not just tp toddlers but to older kids, too, sitting around of a summer evening taking turns sharing a book? I know some teachers and parents, bless them, who still do that, but perhaps those of us who have contact with teachers or parents who don't need to encourage them to do likewise.
Pop culture? Well, I've been known to rail against celebrity books and I've also been known to say it's better for kids to read something than to read nothing. And I guess I'll continue to do both. I'll continue also to support and favor both serious literary books that are wonderfully written and are true art -- and we do still have those, thank goodness-- and also to support fun books, yes, some pop culture books, books that are reasonably well written but have no high-toned artistic pretentions. After all, who among us literary types haven't curled up with a less-than literary mystery or romance of a cold winter's evening, looking for escape from the problemmatic or mundane in our lives? We need fun books, exciting books, books whose plots engage us and take us out of ourselves -- in addition to books that uplift, instruct, make us better than ourselves and let our imaginations and intellects soar. There's a place for all these, I think, and more. Isn't one of the joys of literature that it can encompass such a wide range of uses for the gift of the written word?
Nancy Garden
______________________________________ Please visit my website: www.nancygarden.com Budding Writers #12 is up!
Received on Wed 14 Jul 2004 08:11:42 AM CDT
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 09:11:42 EDT
Joy of reading, yes! It seems to me that's one of the vital issues here: we need to support and promulgate the sheer joy of reading, the delight in finding treasures in books. Whatever happened to the schools that set aside 20 minutes a day some years ago during which everyone -- custodial staff and all -- read? Whatever happened to the magical times when elementary teachers spent 20 minutes or so a day reading a beloved book to students and talking about it, not as an academic exercise, but as an amazing shared experience? What happened to parents who read to their kids -- not just tp toddlers but to older kids, too, sitting around of a summer evening taking turns sharing a book? I know some teachers and parents, bless them, who still do that, but perhaps those of us who have contact with teachers or parents who don't need to encourage them to do likewise.
Pop culture? Well, I've been known to rail against celebrity books and I've also been known to say it's better for kids to read something than to read nothing. And I guess I'll continue to do both. I'll continue also to support and favor both serious literary books that are wonderfully written and are true art -- and we do still have those, thank goodness-- and also to support fun books, yes, some pop culture books, books that are reasonably well written but have no high-toned artistic pretentions. After all, who among us literary types haven't curled up with a less-than literary mystery or romance of a cold winter's evening, looking for escape from the problemmatic or mundane in our lives? We need fun books, exciting books, books whose plots engage us and take us out of ourselves -- in addition to books that uplift, instruct, make us better than ourselves and let our imaginations and intellects soar. There's a place for all these, I think, and more. Isn't one of the joys of literature that it can encompass such a wide range of uses for the gift of the written word?
Nancy Garden
______________________________________ Please visit my website: www.nancygarden.com Budding Writers #12 is up!
Received on Wed 14 Jul 2004 08:11:42 AM CDT
