Reading

So I have been thinking a lot about reading of late, probably because I am in a reading class this semester. I love reading, I have loved reading for as long as I can remember. I think reading may, combined with writing, be the single greatest accomplishment of the human race, and I have my serious doubts that they came up with it on their own, seems to me as though it must have been a gift from God.  Reading and writing a phenomenal in part because the acts themselves are amazing and showcase the incredible nature of the human brain, and in part because they are the means of progression for humans. Think about it, the fact that we can write and read is what allows us to preserve knowledge and made it so everybody doesn't have to go through the same discovery processes over and over. Its incredible. The fact that right now I am writing down a message using a finite alphabet of 26 characters and 10 numerical symbols and that I can transport to you any knowledge I might have is simply astounding. All the worlds knowledge is available to us through reading. My reading class has mostly been the facilitator of this line of thought as well as some things that Steven Covey says in his book, the 7 habits of highly effective people.

In other thoughts on reading I have thought to myself about what an influence it was on my life and intelligence to be taught at an early age to read and to love reading. My nephews have caused me to reflect upon this, Aaron who is four is learning how to read right now which is such an amazing time for a kid who without realizing it is learning to decode from a writing page meaning which will be the source of learning for the rest of their life. Maxwell is 2 and he loves to be read to, Amy says he would sit on your lap and listen to stories all day if he could, just think of all the things he will know and have learned about by the time he can read. Bradley is 1 and he has just figured out that he is suppose to sit on a lap and listen to stories, he likes to laugh when he is read too even though he is probably not understanding much of the story yet. Charlie is just a few months old, he's just barely beginning to take in the world around him, and every night his mom, Brooke, reads a book to him, isn't that the most wonderful? Just think how soon he will start learning cognitive processes and discover how much about the world he can learn from books, if he is anything like his cousins it won't take him very long. I love it, it makes me so excited for these little boys. And it makes me so grateful for parents who taught me to read at an early age and read to me, and encouraged me to read. It reminds me of Dr. Benjamin Carson who gave a forum here at BYU last year, he is one of the smartest most accomplished men in the world and he attributes it to his mom having him read so much.

What scares me now is the number of children who are taught how to read, but are not taught to read, the ability is ensured but the skill is not ingrained, and the passion is not ignited. In Covey's book there reads the line "The person who does not read is no better off that the person who can't read." And that is certainly something to ponder on.