By Dinah Torres Castro
Recently, I was sitting outside of a library in the late afternoon on a beautiful day. I watched as three siblings ran towards the library entrance. Suddenly the boy stopped near the entrance and announced that he was going to write some graffiti on the library door. He appeared to be about 7 years old, and his sisters were just slightly older. He took his imaginary marker and pretended to write on the door. He turned to his sisters and read aloud what he had “written”: DO NOT READ BOOKS! GET MOVIES! He turned and ran into the library as his sisters cheered him on. Their mom followed, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.
It made me sad to think that many kids these days would agree with this little boy. I sat there wondering about what happened to the joy of reading for fun. I remember reading for hours, lost in the world of the characters, and reading under the covers with a flashlight well past my bedtime. I thought about my own children, and I have to admit they are real movie buffs. However, they are readers too. A few years ago, my daughter purchased all the Game of Thrones books and read them before HBO started the popular series. I took this as a healthy sign that I had raised a reader. Actually, both of my daughters enjoy reading and value the written word over the video or movie versions. However, I must admit that my son, like the little boy at the library, has often opted for the movie version rather than spend the time reading. Parents and teachers have the monumental task of teaching this next generation the love of reading, while competing with video games, YouTube, movies, and the rest of today’s technology. How do we do this in a time when reading is down to 140 characters or less?
For more information:
25 Activities for Reading and Writing Fun:
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/25-activities-reading-and-writing-fun
Helping Your Child Become a Reader:
http://www.albany.edu/crsc/pdfs/Parent%20Booklet%202012%20bw.pdf
Dinah Castro is a Bilingual Family Well-Being Educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County’s Family Health and Wellness Program. She can be reached at 631-727-7850 ext. 351 or at dc258@cornell.edu.