|
What my fellow artists and writers are up against. |
|
|
|
I think that a majority of parents out there are well aware of the huge problem that exists within getting young children to read more. I regularly visit schools, normally classes with children aged from nine to fourteen years old. Apart from the very few avid readers among each class, the actual interest in reading a good book or novel compared to that of classes of the same age group twenty years ago is extremely low indeed, in fact I would go as far as to say dangerously low.
Now who exactly has the blame for this? Well I think that I can safely say that nearly all parents do!
The modern society within which we live is absolutely flooded with far too many easy diversions for our young children. Some of these items such as Playstion's, Nintendo's, Wii's, etc etc may very well stimulate the minds of their young users, but the problem lies right there.
The children no longer have to use their imagination, which to me is the most dreadful shame of all.
Imagination is the very soul of reading a good book, one gets to use their very own wonderful imagination whilst reading. This very reason more often than not, makes a good book far better than its movie version. This use of their imagination is something which has definitely been lost within a large majority of our young school children during the last decade.
How do we now recuperate what has been lost?
I personally feel that this can only be recovered by a much more interactive interest from the Parents and Guardians of our young children. Parents must stop, think and realise exactly what they are taking away from their children by allowing them endless amounts of time playing with electronic games, when they really should be making sure that their children are dedicating far more time to reading great books.
Reading as I have mentioned before, breeds tolerance and understanding of other ways of living, places, times and cultures. It develops a greater concentration, self-reliance and confidence, as well as building vocabulary, use of language and general knowledge, the majority of these which will definitely not found on Playstations, Nintendo's or Wii's etc.
|
