Education Starts at Home

Nitzr N. Sarmiento

Fresh in my memories are the good times me and my family spent together to visit malls even before the dreaded pandemic and each time we visit such places, my children will always tell me “Mommy punta kaming National Book Store,” and every time they request to get a copy of books, I always give in but will constantly ask them if they are through reading the previous books they’ve bought and albeit sounds like a nagger, will surely remind them that they have to read the books they are getting.

As a mother of children considered to be “millennials”, which demographers William Strauss and Neil Howe define millennial as born between 1982-2004 and according to their theory, millennials are predicted to be civic minded with a strong sense of community both local and global while Jean Twenge, the author of the 2006 book Generation Me, describes millennial as confident and tolerant generation who imbibe a sense of entitlement and narcissism that speaks of the “selfie” and digitally naïve spirit of our learners today.

With this in my old mind, are the millennials a generation of readers? should be done to make them one?

In this modern age of communication technology with the proliferation of social networking sites together with the fast-paced production of gadgets, millennials tend to seek an out of the box approach and a more diverse fun-filled adventure rather than simply sitting and relaxing while reading a book.

Just like my children, learners nowadays would rather choose to scroll for newsfeed, chat with online friends, watch viral videos and play online games than to contain themselves in the no filter lonely pages of books for everything they wanted to know is google provided whether local or international, may it be recent or out-dated, in just one snap of a finger or with a blink of an eye, homework is done.

This superb creation can provide a one-page summary of a hundred-page novel, and we may all agree that the internet is wonderfully made. It may liberate us to enjoy more pleasurable activities yet it is incomparable with the warmth and company of a good book. As a teacher who relied and still depending mostly on books, it is always a joy for me to see my kids carrying books to read rather than seeing them staying late at night pressed in front of a monitor or a smartphone playing games moreover, posting status and comments on social media.

Whenever I admonish them to stop their social media activities, and asked them to read books, my lecture on the benefits of reading will surely follow starting with these words, “Better to read books because with books you will never run out of battery, no power interruption.”

Getting lost in a good read can make it easier for you to relate to other’s literary fiction, specifically, has the power to help its readers understand what others are thinking by reading other people’s emotions. W hile novels and sci-fi books are made into movies everyone can enjoy watching, however, profound details are never captured digitally, nothing compares to good old fashion reading where words narrating each scene create an imagination that impress the subconscious making the reader more involved, analytic, imaginative and human as one can experience while reading, plus the benefit of having a vast of vocabulary words for future use in our writing and speaking activities (Personally, I always have a dictionary in me when reading a book).

Reading puts your brain to work, and that’s a very good thing. Those who engage in their brains through activities such as reading, chess, or puzzles could be less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those who spend their down time on less stimulating activities.

According to cognitive neuropsychologist David Lewis, there’s a reason snuggling up with a good book, after a long day sounds so appealing, he even quoted that “It really doesn’t matter what book you read, by losing yourself thoroughly engrossing book you can escape from the worries and stresses of the everyday world and spend a while exploring the domain of the author’s imagination.”

As a parent, my role as motivator should be endless, that I have to continuously encourage my children to read books and I do affirm my agreement with what Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis quoted,

“There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.”

The author is ADAS

--oOo-

III at Division of Mabalacat City

If not, what