On Reading Well

In order to master the art of reading, we need to be an everyday reader. A couple of hours a day, or from fifteen to thirty minutes for those who struggle with time, are just recommended. We need to approach to the selected book we will read, with an open mind toward it's content, knowing what we’ll encounter on it, and what we may find of value in it.

Don’t look a book as a chore to read, never do it. If you’re going to read a book, do it because you want it, not because someone told you to, or to earn points in school. Today, many—if not all—of the schools around US, from elementary to high school, have this kind of program in their scholar year. I think it’s great, and that foments the habit of reading in some children, not all of them. Let’s face it, the way they do it in some districts are just wrong.

The other day, I told my thirteen year old nice, if she wanted to read a book I just finish reading, and that it was awesome. I told her, cause it seemed to me that she liked to read, since I saw her with a book last week. “I don’t know,” she paused. “Do you know if they’ll give points for reading it?” It was her response.

I look at her astonished and laugh, I couldn't help it. “They give you points in school for reading a book?” I said at last. “Yeah, and in the end of the year depending of how many points we have, they give a gift or something,” she answered back, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. They were promoting reading, which already was a gift, with a gift.

Some students will find read as a pleasure, but the ones who don’t linger with the amuse of reading, will just find read, as something they rewarded you for doing it. Which I found wrong.

I believe that reading must be taught in school as an art, in a way that can stay in the children so they can enjoy it, and not just something they have to do.

At last, the mastering of read should start in an early age. Forming a well educated person, that see books as a way to enrich life in all form, now that reading is a godsend, and will benefit everybody with a blessing harvest in the present, but also on the hereafter.