­Raising a generation of readers – 1

Raising a better, smarter, more compassionate generation starts with reading to your baby from an early age, but it certainly doesn’t stop there.

Why reading to your baby everyday isn’t enough

We know that reading to babies and interacting with them is one of the greatest gifts we can give them. The love of reading is the gift that empowers them for life. The experience of hearing and watching print come to life is the foundation for almost every kind of learning. And since you’re reading this post, it is safe to assume that you are already giving your child this incredibly important gift.

However, according to studies, in almost 50% of American families, children are not read to even for the recommended minimum number of minutes a week. I can only guess what the percentage may be in lesser developed nations.

So, unless literacy conscious people like us reach out to the millions of kids out there whose parents aren’t reading this blog or any other for that matter, who for reasons known best to them – circumstance, affordability, or the inability to read themselves – do not give their children this crucial and priceless gift, it’s clear that they won’t benefit from it.

Just think. Millions of kids growing up without knowing what it is to be read to, without experiencing the joys of reading, the freedom and thrill that, as far as these kids are concerned, remains trapped within the world of books. For every minute you spend reading to your child and every new book you bring home to read to your baby – there are probably tens of thousands of kids out there who are missing out on that experience.

Time spent not reading as a child is related to problems in adult life

And it’s anybody’s guess what those kids are doing in that time and what alternative experiences they are being exposed to. The fact that high crime rates, high healthcare costs, poverty and various other social problems are directly related to one’s literacy levels, especially early literacy efforts, speaks for itself.

So, basically, while you’re cuddled up reading to your kid, enriching his vocabulary, helping him form nerve connections in his brain, making him smarter, reading him stories about being kind, diligent, perseverant, honest and helpful and hoping that it will all impact his life for the better – his counterparts elsewhere are undergoing experiences that probably lie on the other end of the spectrum.

While you may be doing your best to raise a responsible, intelligent, thoughtful child who loves to read and learn, there are other kids, maybe in your own backyard – who, simply by virtue of where they are born, may be growing up to be everything you don’t want your child to be.

And although these kids may be strangers to us today, we need to remember that they will grow up sharing the same world with our kids.

These are the very kids that your baby is likely to encounter later in his life – at school, on the streets, while shopping or as he takes his commuter train to work.

Which leads us to the point of social responsibility

When it comes to education and literacy, what do you consider your responsibility? That your children learn to spell and read, that they go to the best schools you can afford to send them to, bring home grades that make you proud, that you help them with their math homework or find the best tutor who can and ensure that they develop a well-rounded personality that will set them up for a productive life? Great. But, is that enough?

Does our responsibility to our kids stop with merely educating them and ensuring that they have the skills to lead successful lives?

What of the dozens of kids in your son’s school whose parents simply don’t know how to, can’t afford to or are unable to spend as much time with them? (Let alone read to them.)Who don’t have the benefit of being surrounded by well-educated family members?  Or whose lives have been predetermined by who their parents are and not by their own potential or desire to succeed? Who is responsible for them?

Why, we are, of course!

The answer isn’t immediately obvious. We all have enough to worry about without having to worry about strangers’ kids as it is. I mean, we barely squeeze time to spend with our own kids in the first place. So, how can we possibly be bothered about others we hardly even know? We are even aware of their existence only because our child happens to share a classroom or school bus with them. So why would we worry about who’s reading to them and even if they have a positive influence in their lives? And even if we wanted to, how could we possibly help?

Let’s talk about the Why, first

Leaving aside philanthropy for a minute – although I’m sure many of us agree that that too, should be an integral part of our lives – let’s look at this from a completely selfish point of view.

We should care about kids who don’t have the benefit of being exposed to books and reading because those are the kids that will grow up into adults whom our children will interact with. Wouldn’t your child be better off living in a world surrounded by peers who value reading, learning and intelligent discussions, who have had the enriching experience of being read to when young? Who enjoy reading themselves? Who are well-read, open-minded, expressive, articulate, creative, kind hearted and thoughtful?

Of course you would.

But how can you provide your child such an environment when at least half the kids in his own country are deprived of the benefits he enjoys, with respect to early literacy? These are some statistics compiled on The Literacy Gap, a report published by Everybodywins – a national literacy and mentoring nonprofit that hopes to create an impact with one mentor, one child and one book at a time.

* In the US, the typical middle-class child enters first grade with 1,000-1,700 hours of picture book reading time; a low-income with 25.

* Only 50% of low-income 4th graders read at or above the basic level compared to 79% of their middle-class peers, according to the Department of Education’s 2007 Nation’s Report Card.

* According to Dr. G. Reid Lyon, Chief of Child Development and Behavior at the National Institute of Health, “surveys of adolescents and young adults with criminal records indicate that at least half have reading difficulties, and in some states the size of prisons a decade in the future is predicted by fourth grade reading failure rates.”

* $500 billion:  Annual cost to the U.S. economy of children growing up poor, a result of eventual lower productivity and earnings, higher crime rates and health costs

So, with all that in the background, how can we help but wonder – what can we do to create the kind of world we want for our kids?

The answer to this question could fill hundreds of books and still be incomplete.

How do you spread the gift of reading?

When it comes to giving children the gift of reading – the one gift that is likely to lead them to all the others – there are specific actions each of us can take to enrich the lives of children, not just our own, but hundreds, maybe thousands of others who desperately need the gift to succeed and to lead fulfilling lives.

What can you and I do to spread the gift of reading? How can we raise a generation of readers?

To be continued…