Let's foster interest in reading

by Andrew Scott

The month of September is marked as the national literary month in Sri Lanka and during this time of the year individuals, educational institutions and bookshops throughout the country focus their attention to promote the somewhat waning reading habit. It is the most opportune time for all of us to divert our attention to foster the reading habit, especially among the younger generation caught up in the whirlwind of the electronic media which has spread into every nook and corner of the country. Today, reading is not a popular choice as a recreational activity for most children as well as adults. Most of them do not even care to discuss the great joy that can be found between the covers of a good book. Therefore, it is essential that particularly, in schools and other educational institutions the habit of reading be fostered and nurtured.

The teaching of reading in schools should focus attention firstly on the development of basic skills, especially, word development techniques should be emphasised. The essential thing in promoting the reading habit is to create a genuine interest in reading and enjoy the act of reading. It is not much use teaching children to read if the skill of reading is not to be used in their later life. Emphasis should be laid on the use of reading in our daily lives. It is only the young people who accept the joy and value of habitual reading that carry on this noble habit into their adult lives.

The home should necessarily be the origin of creating an interest in reading and parents could do much to encourage their children to read intelligently. Next, the schools can do much to promote the reading habit. An interest in reading cannot develop in a vacuum. It is always founded on personal interests.

Environment

A student who loves dogs would always prefer to read a book on dogs. Thus, the first step in arousing an interest in reading is to stimulate the child with the world around him. When we consider this fact the home is a very important factor in creating an interest in rending and it is in one's home that a positive attitude for reading can be created in the minds of children.

The parents of children should provide a background for the fostering of healthy reading habits. An interest to read should be as natural to a child as watching television, and to achieve this a suitable home environment for reading has to be built. However, parents who are keen to foster the reading habit in their children should themselves know something about books and authors.

Activities

For the younger children parents should choose the books and a child's first books should be attractive and contain accurate descriptions with coloured pictures. Later a variety of books are necessary to enhance the child's horizons in reading. At the same time children must be taught to treat books with care and respect. Of course, a child's fear of damaging books should not be allowed to interfere with his desire to handle them and read them to get the maximum benefit.

When a child is admitted to school, teachers, especially the language teachers, should take the responsibility to gauge the child's interest in reading. During school days itself children should be encouraged to build up a private library with one's favourite books and periodicals. Thus the teachers’ attitude is a significant feature in improving a student's love for reading. Wherever possible opportunities to read for enjoyment in the classroom should be provided and a daily period devoted entirely for reading will not be out of place in any school. It would provide each pupil an excellent opportunity for exploiting his needs to improve his reading skills.

While the taste for reading should be groomed from the very young days reading for life plays an important part in the lives of every one of us. Teaching children to read can be challenging and activities involved could be planning and implementing lessons, designing and preparing special reading materials, diagnosing reading problems and providing remedies for them and the teacher himself could be a reading model by reading aloud to the children and discussing the books with them.

Today, we are flooded with an ocean of printed matter which pour out of the world's presses and it is almost impossible to read everything that is printed. Therefore, for efficient and useful reading we must make a proper selection of the reading material and select the best from the point of view of individual tastes.

Good books which elevate our mental horizons should be read patiently and discerning readers must always avoid trashy literature such as cheap novels which flood some of our bookshops. It is also important that people who are new to the world of reading should seek some guidance in the selection of suitable reading material and it can easily be done by reading through book reviews published in the daily and weekly newspapers and in some magazines. A well written review will always give a fair picture of the book under review.

Values

Different individuals will have widely different values in reading the same book. However, taken as a whole, books offer amusement, knowledge, inspiration, imagination or even escape. Those who expect to get relaxation and amusement by reading books should always do their reading in a relaxed mood and an atmosphere free of outside disturbances. Particularly, those who seek knowledge from reading should read carefully, taking down notes when necessary.

These notes will come in useful either immediately or even many years later. It is sad that today more and more people are reading less and less good books as they are thoroughly contented by reading books of low literary value such as cheap romances.

This is particularly so with many of our teenagers who should really be guided to become more discerning readers and in reading too as in other activities early habit formation is of intrinsic value.

It is a good habit to read the daily newspapers intelligently as these are daily digests that keep us informed of things happening around us.

Thus the selection in reading is absolutely important and readers must make up their minds to read material that will add to their mental strength and well-being. Random and aimless reading will do us more harm than good. Reading is infectious and only if the parents are readers will their off-spring take to reading and begin to love books. The nurturing of mental culture through the medium of reading is limitless and to a voracious reader a public or private library is a true joy in life.

Finally, we must agree that any national program of good reading is a step towards a better and a cultured world.

A good dictionary is a useful tool for all readers and one should be easily available when one reads. In addition to the dictionary an encyclopaedia should also be available. It is only then that one could develop the skill to find information in books.