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My Post-NEA Report MasterCard Commercial
November 25, 2007
Barnes & Noble bill: $157.73
Borders bill: $86.95
Raising two daughters who are readers: Priceless
I try not to violate too much of Mr. Bethanne's and the Mini-Mavens' privacy, but I don't think they'll mind if I say this much: our two girls are separated by several years and miles of difference in academic performance, extracurricular interests, and innate passions. They're just... really different.
But they both love to read -- which I think bears up the idea that it's not a matter of forcing books on young people to keep them reading. It's a matter of surrounding them with books, making books part of everyday life, considering books as essential as the television, the computer, or the iPod.
As I type, one daughter is curled up reading
The Golden Compass and the other is reading a magazine, having just finished her latest chick-lit novel (hey, I said they're readers -- I didn't say they were into the new
War and Peace translation). Mr. Bethanne is perusing the latest issue of
The New Yorker, with his feet resting on top of a stack of books. I've spent a large chunk of the Thanksgiving holiday indulging myself with my sixth reading of
A Confederacy of Dunces.
We all heard and (hopefully) read a lot in the past couple of weeks about the latest NEA report that said while reading is up among nine-year-olds, it is down (way, way down) by the age of seventeen. I could analyze this. I could refute this. I could argue about this.
Instead, I'll return to the family reading circle. I believe that, like shared dinners, shared reading begets other healthy habits: independence, imagination, and knowledge.
I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!
Posted by Bethanne Patrick on November 25, 2007 | Comments (3)
