One of my personal prize possessions is my library. I have
hundreds of books on a wide variety of topics. With the advent of eBooks and
Kindle, there were prognosticators who predicted that the book could become
obsolete. That has not happened. What has occurred because of the Internet and
social media, people are reading less. We can access magazine articles, read a
paragraph (or two) and then move on. According to a Washington Post article
this summer, a study completed by Neilson concluded that the average American
spends more than 10 hours a day consuming all types of media. According to the
Post story, Warren Buffet admitted to reading 500 pages a day-well beyond the
scope of most of us. Other celebs had tried to read on average 5 hours a week.
What is a realistic goal for you? What about for your students?
I once had a professor who remarked, “ Those who read will
know and those who don’t won’t.” We need to instill a genuine curiosity in
students and encourage them to read. Last week I was on a local college campus
to participate in viewing the solar eclipse. There were well over one thousand
people there, including many children. I was encouraged to hear families
discuss the elements of the eclipse and what they had read about it prior to
the big event. There are many teachable moments that occur during the course of
a school year. Use those moments as opportunities to encourage your students to
read. Filter out the distractions and READ.
c. 2017 J Margolis
No comments:
Post a Comment