Are we giving our kids enough time to read?

It wasn’t until this morning while viewing the John Green clip that it dawned on me that one of the biggest challenges we are facing with kids and literacy is that we don’t give them enough time to read just for enjoyment sake. We don’t really offer them good reasons for why we should read beyond the importance of communication. Do we emphasize how reading critically gives us tools to connect? Or to imagine what it’s like to be someone else so we can empathize? Once we explain these connections, is enough time given to kids to just read without having technology or other distractions around?

My daughter has been struggling with depression and anxiety for over a year. After months of trying to get help, my daughter is now in a treatment center for her depression where she only has access to the internet during school hours. She has been there for 8 weeks now and has read more books during that time period than she has over the last 4 years. The books she initially started reading were about girls who were struggling similar to herself. It was a comfort to know that she wasn’t alone and that others have experienced life as she has. As her therapy continues her interest in genre of books is beginning to change. She has been able to use these books as a part of her healing process. She is now using books where she had been accessing social media to be able to make connections so that she didn’t feel alone.

Her experiences with reading have me thinking about my practices as a teacher, mom, and human being. My daughter is reading because she has the time to do it and she has no distractions keeping her from it. I can’t remember the last I read a book for fun, I don’t make the time but need to. I love reading books to my class and getting them engaged and excited over stories we read but I haven’t given myself time to do it. In an era where everyone seems to be on the go, I think it’s time to start slowing down and getting unplugged. Instead of doing what’s quick and easy, let’s open a book and make new connections and in the end maybe learn a little more about ourselves.



Sources:

Green, John. (crashcourse). (2012, November 15). How and Why We Read: Crash Course English Literature #1 (video file). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSYw502dJNY

Martinson, K., Mortensen, J., Williamson, S. (2013). Literature in the 21st Century. Retrieved from http://digitalis.nwp.org/resource/5056