Week 9: Reading for Life Starts Young

I am a huge believer in the importance of reading from a young age. Such a huge believer that I was buying books for my eldest nephew before he was born… He and his younger brother are always, without fail, always read at least one book each night before bed. They are nuts for it. My nephew recently turned four and he knows what he wants – two books and a song before bed. He has even worked out that by choosing books with lots of pages and words means more reading time before. Clever, but annoying. Some of those Thomas books are so repetitive! I can’t complain though, because this love for reading is only ever going to help my nephew in school and the real world.

Earlier this year I attended the Read for Life - Early Childhood Symposium hosted by the State Library of Queensland in Mackay (more info available http://www.plconnect.slq.qld.gov.au/news/2013-news/read-for-life-early-childhood-symposium). The guest speakers, Jay Laga’aia and Dr Susan Krieg, spoke on the importance for reading to children from a young age. One fact which really struck me was that a child should have read at least 10,000 books by the time they start school. For my nephews, no drama. For other kids, probably not so good.

However, it’s come to my attention that not all children are lucky like my nephew to be raised with a love of books. This is a shame, and even more shameful is that the general public don’t seem to realise on what these kids are missing out on. By not encouraging children to read from an early age, we’re contributing to the declining rates of literacy within Australia.

ABC News reported in 2010 that Australia was one of the only countries in which reading literacy levels have declined (McDonald, 2010). In this article, Geoff Masters, chief executive of the Australian Council for Educational Research, stated that it is mostly related to how highly education is valued within Australia (McDonald, 2010). One of Master’s main points was that there was a huge gap between low socio-economic groups and Indigenous groups with higher socio-economic groups. In the recent election a huge emphasis was placed on education reform.

Now that the election has finished and the new prime minister will be sworn in this afternoon, it will be interesting to see how he values education. One of statements on the ABC News website has spike my interest though. The Coalition in their view on education aim to ‘give school principals more control of their schools and parents more say in how schools are run, devolving responsibility from bureaucrats’ (ABC, 2013).

To me, this doesn’t seem to be the best way in close the gaps that Masters mentioned. By giving responsibility entirely to the school principals then it would all depend on that particular school and community. What happens when kids get lumped with a lazy principal who’s holding out to their retirement? Or if their community doesn’t value education? Or their local MP is a t*sser? There needs to be a balance between government and schools in order to provide the best for the children. As they always say - Children are the future!

So maybe take the time to sit down and read a book with a young child. It’s a rewarding and fun experience (for the kid too!)

Reference List

McDonald, T. (2010). Australian students’ literacy levels declining. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-12-08/australian-students-literacy-levels-declining/2366804

Lane, S. (2013). Education policy: where the parties stand. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/federal-election-2013/policy/education/