Striking right balance with books
Print Edition
WHILE studies have shown that reading for pleasure boosts academic performance across all subjects, the top question I get asked by parents is “how do I get my child to read?”
As a parent and a teacher, I find this question to be a real challenge. Firstly, getting children to read is difficult when we are also allowing them to have almost free access to technology, which attracts them with colorful, easy fun.
The idea of sitting and reading a book seems anathema to a child who also has the option of “Call of Duty” or “Plants vs Zombies.” However, I also think that there can be a balance; a friend of mine has a great family routine where devices are placed away — for the whole family — for an hour every day. The children can do what they want as long as it doesn’t involve a screen. He has found that eventually the children — and adults, too — have returned to reading.
Other studies have found that forcing children to read actually results in children resisting even more. Therefore, it’s important that adults in the family really value reading: have a small library full of books, read around the home, leave magazines around to be picked up and perused and engage with your children about what you and they are reading. Schools can support this but what happens at home is equally important.
At NAIS Pudong, we are clamping down on mobile use — you’re not allowed one out during the school day — and we are peering over the shoulders of students to ensure that they’re not on games. Funnily enough, I now see more students sitting around the school reading. In the English department, we have a recommended reading board as well as a competition to get students reading.
The long and the short of it is that reading underpins everything we do in schools and also informs much of what we do in later life. One strategy I used with my son was to read with him every night. I read to him and soon he came to really look forward to the time together and now, when I go up to his room, he’s reading. For me, that’s a great result.
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