Sure, books are one of life's pleasures, but who said every kid has to love reading?
There are certain truths I have depended on in life. Keep cool and upright (got that off a Janola bottle) and always have a book with you wherever you are going. It's like a talisman to ward off evil.
I would never go anywhere without a weighty tome so if
I got stuck somewhere with nothing to do, or looked like Nigel No-Mates, I could escape into a book.
I used to walk to school reading my book (watch out for lampposts ... doh!) and even once walked across Golden Gate Bridge reading my book. Libraries were hallowed places.
But in keeping with the fundamental truth that most beliefs you hold as a young person actually prove to be the opposite, I have rather gone off the fetishisation of books. It's not just that these days I can play Scrabble on my iPhone if I'm stuck somewhere with nothing to do, but also that the worship of books seems to have become a religion.
I recently went to an evening at my child's school where a shrill children's book author exhorted us all in the strongest terms to compulsively read to our children. If we missed one night of Dr Seuss, presumably they would all grow up to be slacker loser hoons rather than tidy Prius drivers who belong to book clubs. There is a hectoring tone to this middle class discourse about books - literary works are the great redeemer. You could be excused, in certain chattering class circles, for thinking you are committing child abuse if you don't plod through a stack of books every night - inevitably with righteous themes about global warming and saving all sorts of endangered species.
Don't get me wrong, I would love my children to discover how books can open up new worlds. And there is no doubt it is essential to be literate. But I am not so sure that every person needs to be a bluestocking or appreciate Jane Austen. Frankly, books were just an escape during the most unhappy periods of my life; a more constructive escape than if I had smoked pot or played pokies, but the effect was the same.
Of course, books do require you to use your imagination in a way playing Tetris doesn't - and they do furnish a room. But they are just a means to an end - a way to find out about interesting things. What matters is encouraging kids' curiosity about the world, rather than the books themselves. With lowered barriers to entry, a lot of books are nothing more than pamphlets, a gratuitously long magazine article - or simply indulgent rubbish (Eat, Pray, Love, anyone?).
I am not sure that educationalists will have failed if every child does not get turned on to books, any more than every child should love sport.
I notice you don't seem to see the same passion from teachers and other intellectuals for teaching kids to be financially literate - but I'd say being able to manage money is possibly more useful than having read The Da Vinci Code.
This week, John Key admitted teachers are still struggling to implement the new national standards programme.
Good luck with that. Just remember, when it all gets too hard and depressing you can always just sit down and lose yourself in a good novel.
dhc@deborahhillcone.com
