Making Reading a
Beautiful Way of Life
Well, this news
article that I happened to read today in the Chennai Edition of The Times of
India, is the spur and the reason for this little post!
It was quite an
alarming revelation, and such a shocking indictment of the sordid state of
affairs that we in academia have come to!
Isn’t it a matter of
deep regret then, that our children, even in third grade, cannot read the
alphabet!?
Too shocking! Ain’t
it?
But well, let’s not blame
anyone now for this alarming crisis that’s staring at us!
At a time and age when
reading skills of our children both at school and in college have taken a
nose-dive, it has become all the more imperative on our part, as teachers, in
this noble path of enlightening our students, to step in and plug the breach!
What went wrong?
What exactly went
wrong?
Where exactly did it
go wrong?
And how do we fix the
problem?, [NOT the blame!]
How do we gear up as
teachers together, to do some concrete action, some noble action, to stem the
rot!? To plug the breach?
The first step is to
educate our learners on the importance of reading!
And on this count,
there’s a lot at stake in our good ol’ libraries.
Many might tend to
shrug off and make light of, the immense value of a library in these tech-savvy
days! But they’re quite mistaken on this count!
Last year, I personally
hired a tourist bus, yes a tourist bus, that came straight into campus, near
Selaiyur Hall gate, to take all my first year MA students to the Anna Centenary
Library and make them sit there and read for themselves any good book/s that
they found interesting.
Our kids started relishing much this new-found habit of reading, and they also seemed to approach it as an engaging, and therapeutic exercise!
Soon, over the next
three weekends, a little group of students expressed their desire to go again
to the same library!
So yet again, I went
along with them, and demonstrated to them the art of reading books effectively!
Thanks to the training I had received from my beloved librarian Dr. Manalan!
Well, yet another eureka moment on reading happened to me, when I read through Professor Neil McCaw’s [University of Winchester, UK], marvellous book titled, How to Read Texts. The very next moment, I impulsively wrote him a long mail, highly appreciative of his book, and also requested him if I could quote a few lines from his book on our academic blog. This was way back in the year 2012! Professor McCaw, the kind heart that he is, promptly obliged, and then I did this post! You may want to read this post on the importance of reading, HERE! It was also carried in our College Magazine of that particular year’s, in 2012! I also had it photocopied and distributed to all my literature students back then!
Well, yet another eureka moment on reading happened to me, when I read through Professor Neil McCaw’s [University of Winchester, UK], marvellous book titled, How to Read Texts. The very next moment, I impulsively wrote him a long mail, highly appreciative of his book, and also requested him if I could quote a few lines from his book on our academic blog. This was way back in the year 2012! Professor McCaw, the kind heart that he is, promptly obliged, and then I did this post! You may want to read this post on the importance of reading, HERE! It was also carried in our College Magazine of that particular year’s, in 2012! I also had it photocopied and distributed to all my literature students back then!
Well, the joys of
reading quite soon caught up with them, and even today, quite regularly, I get
snaps of our kids enjoying their time in the portals of this grand library –
the Anna Centenary Library, Adyar, Chennai.
Now they testify for
themselves the abundant joy they find in reading books!
Reading then has to
become a habit for our kids!
In this regard, parents also have a great burden up their shoulders! Giving their children all these petty, trivial youtube videos 24x7, makes the poor child crave more and more for the visual form more than the print form!
After having given the child a daily dose of such intense visual treats, when the poor child is back in school, and when the teacher asks the child to read in class, how will she possibly try to read? Quite impossible, ain’t it!?
Parents should
remember that they alone are responsible if their children are not good readers!
Parents should also bear in mind that, every day of Television time or Gadget time for their kids is sure spoiling their child's rich and precious future! It’s like the beautiful Tamil proverb that says, ‘Using your own
hands to dump sand on your own head’!!!
For me, personally, my
dad and mom used to buy loads and loads of books and place it neatly stacked in
bookshelves everywhere at home, even when we were very young!
And I can so proudly
tell you that we did not have a Television set at anypoint of time at our sweet home till the time i came to College!
What blessed parents we had!
How much they were
concerned about their children that they did not want their children to be
spoilt by all the unwanted vulgar and trivial info that makes its way straight
into one’s sitting room through the Television box!
Even today, even as I have
crossed forty years, I still don’t have a television set at home! We had one,
to be honest, but it’s now in the attic for more than two years, now ;-)
Thanks to my parents,
to my librarian, and all my teachers who have effected this change in this
pavapetta me!!!
As eminent critic Scupin Richard once said, every student who spends one hour on social networking sites daily, should bear in mind, that they are losing one year’s productivity of their glorious future!
Two hours a day on
social networking then means two years of your glorious future lost, and gone
to drain!
Three hours and more a
day on social networking sites, and three precious years of your promising
future, gone waste!
Four hours and more a
day on these social networking sites, and well, rest assured,
you become of no possible use to anybody, anywhere, at anytime, at any point of
time!!!
How true is Scupin
Richard!
Together let’s strive
to come out of all that bogs us down!
Together let’s strive
to make all our burdens light!
Together let’s strive then,
to be far far away from all pessimistic, negative people!
Together let’s strive
to surround ourselves with chirpy, positive souls, who will inspire us to dream
our future in beautiful ways!
Together let’s then begin
anew, the gentle art of reading!
Rightaway at that!!
Your future, dear
student, lies in your hand!
Not in the hand of
your gadgets!
Not in the hands of
facebook or instagram!
Not in the hands of any
of your friend/s!
Not in the hands of
your parents!
Not in the hands of
your teachers!
Not in the hands of
your politicians!
Not in the hands of
your movie stars!
Not in the hands of
the television channels!
Not in the hands of
Big Boss!
It lies entirely,
entirely and completely in your hands!
Be a steward of your own
life!
Use it responsibly! Very
responsibly!
Love,
Your teacher,
Dr. Rufus
Catherine Belsey has also given her wonderful take on Reading, that we had posted HERE on our blog.
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