Why do we share literature with children?

Part 1:  Why do we share literature with children?

Oliver Jeffers celebrates the art of imagination with A Child of Books | CBC Radio. (2016, September 08). Retrieved June 6, 2019, from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/schedule-for-thursday-september-8-2016-1.3752725/oliver-jeffers-celebrates-the-art-of-imagination-with-a-child-of-books-1.3752752

We share literature with children and young adults for a number of reasons, including that it is fun and pleasurable, it improves students’ academic success, and it increases students’ vocabulary. Research has shown that reading, above other factors, is the key to children’s educational success. Additionally, students will not become lifelong readers if we do not share with and help cultivate a love for reading when they are younger.

Reading for pleasure can be viewed as a type of imaginative play. It allows children to role play other people’s environments, lives, and experiences, and has been shown to increase empathy. In these instances, books serve as “windows” to other worlds and an increased understanding of others’ behaviors and viewpoints. It can serve as an education of the reader’s feelings, as well as an education on other cultures, backgrounds, and practices. Reading for enjoyment plays a pivotal role in whether children will continue to pursue reading throughout their educational careers and lives. Reading for a minimum of twenty minutes each day, along with the concept of preschoolers having a thousand books read aloud to them before beginning formal schooling, has statistically proven to increase students’ vocabulary, and ultimately standardized test scores. There is a direct correlation between the quantity read by children and their measurable achievements in education.

As books serve to increase empathy for others by acting as windows to other experiences, reading autobiographically is important to readers’ self value, also known as books serving as “mirrors.” It is significant and validating for children and young adults to see themselves and their own personal experiences reflected in literature. Likewise, children and teens benefit from reading stories which can allow them to have vicarious experiences, ask deep philosophical questions, and experience aesthetic responses. Living vicariously not only allows teens to imagine dangerous situations without actually living them, but perhaps helps to develop their sense of mortality, carry-through, and decision making when it comes to predicting outcomes and consequences. This also leads to asking the deeper moral and ethical questions often inspired by young adult fiction.

In considering all of these reasons for sharing literature with children, I imagine a perfect arc in which toddlers are read to copiously, begin reading independently at a young age, are immersed in chapter books in grade school, and are soon reading all there is to read and understand as young adults. Realistically, however, I believe that at any point, no matter what was missed, or misrepresented, students can still find time to develop a love for reading with the right direction and encouragement.  From the data I have read, at no age do students cease to benefit from daily reading.

My own love of reading was in fact instilled at a very young age. However, throughout my educational career, my reading life saw many ups and downs, often due to the attitude and approach of teachers or librarians. I try to keep this in mind in my presentation to students; the goal is to create lifelong readers, not opponents to reading. I have personally witnessed this with my own children, who I of course want to read, and read everything, but often have to pull back from; most recently, my son, yet a reluctant reader as a seventh grader, finally began to pursue independent reading for pleasure with the guidance of a friendly teacher and the ever-winning S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. All told, helping children to become readers who pursue various types of literature not only increases students’ lifelong educational success, but develops imagination across many areas, which must be invaluable to our world’s ingenuity, empathy, and improvement.