Reading aloud
At a recent college interview, the program director asked my son "do you ever read aloud?" "No," John replied. "You have," the director replied. "You've read aloud before, right?"
"I have," John said.
"Then you have read aloud."
The director left the room. He returned with Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice. "Read this aloud. . .every night," the director said. "We need to hear good words in our voice, so read some of this every night."
A few weeks passed and I figured that the message had been forgotten. When John was young, we read aloud every night. James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The House with a Clock in Its Walls, Harry Potter, C.S. Lewis, My Side of the Mountain. . .whatever we could get our hands on.
Henry (age 8) is assigned reading every night. Last night he wanted me to read and I thought of the director's advice. We started Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. Libby (age 4) floated in and out. Mostly in. We like ghost stories.
But we like reading aloud too. The rythmn, the cadence, the voices and the words are like music.
Tonight I shut off the television and was heading to bed when I heard a voice downstairs. Jane Austin. We should all read aloud.
"I have," John said.
"Then you have read aloud."
The director left the room. He returned with Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice. "Read this aloud. . .every night," the director said. "We need to hear good words in our voice, so read some of this every night."
A few weeks passed and I figured that the message had been forgotten. When John was young, we read aloud every night. James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The House with a Clock in Its Walls, Harry Potter, C.S. Lewis, My Side of the Mountain. . .whatever we could get our hands on.
Henry (age 8) is assigned reading every night. Last night he wanted me to read and I thought of the director's advice. We started Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. Libby (age 4) floated in and out. Mostly in. We like ghost stories.
But we like reading aloud too. The rythmn, the cadence, the voices and the words are like music.
Tonight I shut off the television and was heading to bed when I heard a voice downstairs. Jane Austin. We should all read aloud.
I'm reading a book on brain plasticity, The Brain That Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge, M.D. The author believes that one reason test scores have fallen since the mid-'60s is that schools no longer have students read aloud, drill on spelling and arithmetic, and memorize long passages of poetry. Too "boring," for the teachers, anyway. But students need that brain exercise to create certain neurological "maps." I don't have the book in front of me, and I'm sure I'm not doing the author justice, but that's the gist. Fascinating book. It covers many topics besides the deficiencies of the modern American educational system. Highly recommended.
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