Reading: More Than Just Books

by Phil Stott

As someone who's always read, and who basically makes his living from being able to read and write, I've always known that reading is important. And that a love of reading begins in childhood. What I didn't know until I read this piece in The New York Times, however, was exactly how important reading is to a child's development. According to the article, kids who don't read during their summer vacation fall behind those who do: whether by their own choice or through being forced to at home or summer camp. And that's not just a "well, duh!" moment that gets wiped out easily once school starts again; kids who don't get a mental workout over the summer vacation display demonstrably lower I.Q. scores than they did before the vacation. The advantage for a child who keeps mentally active over the break, therefore, is clear to see.

Now, the piece in the Times was more or less an excuse for the writer to compile a list of his all-time favorite children's books. Having grown up in Britain, my own list would probably look significantly different (although Harry Potter and the Hardy Boys would still make it onto mine), but the point of this piece isn't to provide recommendations or any kind of exercise in nostalgia.

Rather, what I'd like to make a case for is the role that environment plays in reading-and it's something that's easily overlooked in an age when kids have so many things competing for their interest and attention.

Hands down the smartest family I know has five kids. One parent is a graduate of Cambridge. The only 2 kids old enough to have graduated high school now attend Princeton and Yale, while the other 3 look set to follow in their footsteps. Their house, as might be expected, is a chaotic mess, the sort of place where you can stumble sideways and bring a wall of books crashing down on you wherever you turn. Clearly the kids have something of a genetic advantage, not to mention a socio-economic one, but it seems to me that there's more to it than just having smart, well-educated parents who seem to have saved every book they or their kids have ever read.

What it comes down to, I think, is that the parents aren't afraid to let their children get bored. None of the kids has their own TV, and the one games console the family owns is located in the living room-a factor that greatly reduces the amount of time the kids can use it. On top of that, the parents limit the time their kids get to spend doing frivolous things on the Internet (i.e. anything that isn't homework-related), and have set up the house with chairs, couches and cushions tucked into just about every nook and cranny that's not occupied by books. The result: a place with lots of quiet, private spaces for a child to sit down and get lost in the pages of whatever they happen to find on the shelves. And, with less competition for their attention, an increased likelihood of that actually occurring.

That's what I mean when I talk about environment. Often, it's not the instructions we give our kids that has the greatest effect on their behavior. (Indeed, in my toddler's case, instructions tend to get me the exact opposite result to the one I'm seeking.) Thus, sitting a child down and telling them to read is likely to be as well received as telling them to eat their vegetables at the dinner table. Creating an environment where reading seems like as natural a diversion as picking up a PSP, however, may just make the difference in ensuring that your child's I.Q. continues to develop all through their lives. So if you're planning on starting any kind of pro-reading campaign this summer, by all means start with someone else's list, but consider also phasing out some of the other distractions in your child's life.