Ten ways to raise a nonreader/reader

Tammy recently purchased a book entitled “Honey for a Child’s Heart” by Gladys Hunt. The focus of the book is to give parents guidance on selecting reading material for their children. Mrs. Hunt lists both classics and current literature for suggested reading. I don’t agree with every suggestion in the book, but do agree with quite a lot of it and am impressed by many of the ideas she suggests for developing young readers and lovers of God’s Word. Here are a couple of thought-provoking lists to ponder as a parent.

Ten Ways to Raise a Nonreader

1. Have the television on at all times. Make sure you put a television set and a computer in every room. (Don’t forget the kitchen!)
2. Keep the place neat - no books or literary magazines in sight.
3. Never let your children see you read a book.
4. Never take your kids to the library.
5. Never read stories aloud past age two.
6. Never talk about ideas while eating meals.
7. Keep the lights down low. Buy only forty-watt lightbulbs.
8. Schedule your children for every activity you can think of so they won't be bored.
9. Never play any table games together.
10. Absolutely no reading in bed or good lamps to make it easy to do so.

Ten Ways to Raise a Reader

1. Restrict television watching drastically.
2. Keep the computer under control and where it can be monitored. Don't allow too many hours on pointless computer games or in chat rooms.
3. Have books and other good reading material within easy reach, an enticement to read.
4. Let your children see you reading.
5. Read books aloud together regardless of age.
6. Talk about books together; play games together.
7. Have well-lit rooms with comfortable chairs that invite reading.
8. Balance activity schedules with reading time. Let your kids know the library is as important as the gymnasium.
9. Encourage reading in bed with good lights to do so.
10. Visit the library often, and listen to books-on-tape when traveling.

Now, why is this relevant for a Sunday school blog? God did not reveal Himself through video, pictures, or music. He revealed Himself through words in the Scripture. The ability to reason, follow a flow of argument, and take ownership of ideas from reading a text is uniquely human and part and parcel to the image of God in which we were first created. Reading good books forces the mind to engage in critical thinking - what is the author trying to say? - rather than the emotion-dominated - what does that mean to me? - thinking that permeates our video game, T.V. saturated culture. The Bible is literature. It has history, poetry, legal arguments, etc., each word divinely inspired. Yet, each type of literature has been written to be read “literally” in the sense that poetry should be read as poetry, history as history, etc.

By instilling in our children a love for reading all of these types of literature, we build within them a greater ability to read God’s Word with understanding of Its objective meaning, not their subjective preference.