#whyread

Whether from family, friends or strangers passing by, most avid readers have been asked the question “Why do you read?” at some point. I was personally asked this questioned today for what seems the hundredth time by a relative who avoids books as though he may catch a deadly disease if he goes near them. I like to imagine most readers when confronted with the question, myself included, tend to look at the questioner as though they are some multi-headed hydra spawn from the depths of some fevered nightmare. However to be fair, it is a good question and not one that has a simple answer for me.

Growing up I had some lonely times in grade school. Books helped me through those years. They allowed me to escape into fantastic worlds with heart-pounding adventure and allowed me to meet memorable characters I felt were friends. I could lose myself in a book. I discovered people with bigger problems than my own. I learned important things from these books. Important things like embracing diversity, perseverance, love, the true meaning of friendship, how handle painful loss…the list could go on forever.

The different life lessons I learned from reading are hard to learn. Especially in the kind of world we live in today. A world where wars are constant, human suffering is common place, governments are self-serving and our environment is constantly under attack by the very people it allows to exist. How can the lessons I learned from reading be taught under such conditions?

I have been a fervent reader since the tender age of 6. Because of this and my bad reading habits, I got my first glasses at the age of 8. And my eyesight only got worse, but never have I regretted discovering my love for reading.

When I was young, reading has been my backyard-- a vast one in comparison to the slides, sandboxes and swings that normal kids have. As I grew older, reading has satisfied my wanderlust. It has brought me to amazing places that my mind cannot fathom and it shared with me experiences I never thought I would go through. 

(Some of the most thrilling adventures I've had recently.)

Reading is an exciting out-of-this-world adventure.

No one hates reading. You just have to find a book that excites you and stirs your mind. And, it is never too late to find it.

And please, do come join us in Bookbed, a reading community based in the Philippines and let us make this country a #readingnation. 

Forgive the boring title. We are reading Why Read? by Mark Emundson for one of my college English classes. Basically this book discusses why reading is important and how he thinks education should be different. As an education major/someone who has been in school at least once, his thoughts on education are interesting to me. Bear with me, I think this post is worth thinking about.

Education has become entertainment 24/7. Many students hate teachers who can't joke around and don't make their subject fun. While I personally think it's a good thing for a teacher to be enthusiastic and connect with their students, I do realize this entertainment issue is actually a problem. A student can't go into a class and expect their teachers to do backflips, crack jokes, and give them puppies. School is for learning. Sometimes a lesson a teacher has to teach is not going to be fun. Does that make the teacher a bad one? Or the lesson not worth learning? Just because I didn't think my biology class was fun doesn't mean what I learned wasn't important.

He also had some interesting points about television. I love television more than the average bear, but I think his criticism of it was spot on. TV makes enthusiasm look silly. Why participate when you can just watch? We love to watch things. Think about when you were little. Do you remember when everyone was super enthusiastic about volunteering for things in school? By the time you got to middle school and high school, it became lame to be the one to raise your hand in class. What happened?

For me, I relate this lack of enthusiasm to television. I started watching more things on TV as I got older. Let's assume my classmates did, too. By watching TV, we figured just watching other things was better too. We'd rather get lost in other people's lives than live our own. Of course, I'm still going to continue to watch my shows. Don't get me wrong. Perhaps I'll try to make a more conscious effort to read more, though.

Finally, the last thing I found interesting was that people use education to get rich, not for enrichment. SO TRUE. For some. While people may want a certain lifestyle in the future and need a certain amount of money to do it, I feel that education should challenge your beliefs as well. Thank goodness for liberal education! I'm taking classes about things I hate, but you know what? It's good I'm learning about them. When am I going to use chemistry as an English teacher? Never! But now I know why chemists are important and maybe understand why some things work the way they do. If my brain absorbed anything.

I also think we should be challenged in our education - beliefs-wise. Sure, maybe I think green is the best color in the world and everyone should like green but what about all the people that like blue? I should have to think about that. I should be courteous to them and perhaps think about blue being an okay color. I can still like green the most, but I can accept blue. That is obviously an over simplified example of challenging beliefs. I am trying to avoid political/religious/whatever discussions. For now.