School Days

We all know how important it is to read to our children. It is a piece of wisdom so selfevident it does not even bear discussing.

But actually, if asked why it is so important, we might be hard pushed to come up with more than the vaguest of reasons. We do it partly because there is almost nothing nicer than sitting with a small child on your knee or tucked in beside you on the sofa, reading the stories you loved as a child. Cooking with a child comes a good second, but it takes so long and makes so much mess that you always end up a bit regretful.

If I ask a classroom of children how many of them were read to when they were little, almost every child will put up a hand. If I were to ask how many are read to now, it would be a different story. Being read to is seen as something babyish; something you grow out of pdq.

And yet research is showing us that we should read to children for much longer than we do. The drop-off begins after the age of five, before which 59 per cent of parents read to their children. By 9-11, it’s only 17 per cent. And yet, if we are reading a class book, the children will ask me to read to them, rather than the traditional taking-turns-round-the-class method. One reason is laziness: ‘We understand it better when you read it’ and ‘You do the voices’ are among the reasons given. These same children would be furious if their parents removed their faces from screens and read to them before bedtime, but their inner child still loves the cosiness of listening to a story.

One of my daughters, sick in bed at 14, asked me to read to her as I had when she was little. Only the other day, sitting in the garden, two of my daughters asked me to read to them. Both times I was surprised (they are now in their twenties), but rediscovered the joy of sharing a story. Too many children have never had that.

The benefits of reading to children go far beyond the obvious acquisition of vocabulary, the unconscious learning of spelling and the bonding with the child. The long-term effects include academic success – perhaps obviously – and also proven positive benefits to mental health and behaviour. Mental health? Well, yes, we learn empathy through others’ stories. Children with attention deficit disorder who are regularly read to begin to improve their concentration. Perhaps the most interesting finding is that these improvements are unrelated to background and family circumstances.

Here, however, we have a problem. Libraries are being cut. How can people living in or near poverty find the money to buy books to read to their children? If they can’t, background and family circumstances will make a difference.

So our school is launching a new initiative. Form tutors will regularly read aloud to their class. Some of the teachers are anxious about it, but what really surprised me was that when I told my own tutor group (14-15-year-olds, most of whom are reluctant to read on their own), they were delighted. They are not going to have to read aloud, or to follow the book’s text or to do anything with the text. All they are being asked to do is to listen.

I can’t wait – I just can’t decide what book to choose. The Kite Runner? The Time Machine? Any ideas welcomed.