The Importance of Reading by Kate Hohl

Dear Parents,

When Andrew asked me to write something about the importance of reading for this week's blog, I wondered what I could say to you that you don't know already. For, as parents of children growing up with television, computer, and the myriad other means of entertainment that are available these days, you are only too well aware that reading is under serious challenge, an even more serious challenge than when you were growing up.

Without wanting to reminisce for too long, I can remember a time when parents did not have to 'enforce' reading time, for only the radio competed with books for children's time and attention. I grew up in such an environment, and, even as a young teacher, I needed to do little to encourage my students to read. Those were the days when we did not think about what we might lose if people did not read, for almost everybody did, albeit not the gamut of classical literature that is still regarded as the mark of a liberal arts education by many people.

Undoubtedly, today we have to remind ourselves rather frequently about what we gain from reading both as children and adults. In particular, children who do not read easily and naturally will not know what they are being deprived of without the help of both parents and teachers.
The obvious gains from regular reading are an ability to express one's ideas in clear, precise and varied language. An increase in the vocabulary we have at our disposal makes it easier to say what we mean and argue our case convincingly. This, I believe is a skill that we all need on a regular basis. Logical thought is embodied in and developed by the written language, and helps us in all walks of life and at all times to fulfil our potentail as thinking and creative human beings.

This brings me to what we and our children should be reading. To reduce this to two clichés: a little of what you fancy does you good, but you can have too much of a good thing. We cannot only and always read what immediately takes our fancy; a varied selection of fiction and non-fiction is essential for us and our children if we are to extend our horizons. It is not only on the internet that we can find rubbish and quality reading, and as parents and teachers we need to help our children and young people to choose books and periodicals which will stretch their minds and give them a wide general knowledge.

Good fiction, in particular, develops imagination, an awareness of times and places which we have not visited. A professor of medicine once told me that he had learned more psychology from reading fiction than he had in the courses he had taken in that discipline, and how many of our jobs require us to deal with people from many walks of life and different backgrounds from our own!

My own son is now twenty six, so I am no longer either responsible for, nor able to influence, his reading. I do, however, have the satisfaction of knowing that I did my very best to give him a good start. Not only did I buy him a large and varied number of books, as I know that many of you do, but I read to him in both English and German for many years. The last book that we read together was Dickens' 'Great Expectations' when he was fourteen; by that time he read as well and fluently as I do, and I enjoyed being read to as much if not more than reading.

Here at school, the staff are always ready to offer advice to students---and parents--- for we are most aware that good readers make the best students, even in maths and science, and later, the most able workforce. If you are seen reading by your children, if you read to them regularly, if you have control over when your children watch television or play computer games, and encourage them to read widely, you will give them something invaluable and lasting.

I wish you luck!