(no subject)

[rivka]

This afternoon, at the clinic, a little girl belonging to one of the staff members was hanging out in the waiting room, reading. Some other staff member was chatting with her in a friendly sort of way, when suddenly her voice lost its normal relaxed cadence and became stilted, affected, self-conscious:

"Ohhh, you got that book from the library. [reading the title:] Glassblowing. Woooow. Reading is very important, because you'll be all set for school if you've been reading this summer. Good for you."

*eyeroll* Please. This is not how people talk about things that they genuinely value, and you can't tell me that kids aren't sharp enough to pick up the difference.

There's a ridiculous amount of pious propaganda from adults about the Joys of Reading. Probably most of it isn't quite as fake-sounding as this was, but much of it that I encounter seems to be completely alien to the way people who actually like books talk. It reminds me instead of the tone of voice I used as a camp counselor to jolly the kids into taking their swimming lessons when the water temperature was 63 degrees.

My parents never had to preach sermons about the Virtues of Reading. They just sat down in the living room in the evenings and read their books, and kept shelves full of them in every room, and sometimes recommended their favorites. But then, they actually did like to read. curiousangel's parents didn't like to read, but I don't think they preached to him about it either - they just took him to the library a lot and stayed out of his way.

Hmm. As I write this, I'm becoming more sympathetic to the difficulty involved in trying to encourage something you recognize as good, but don't personally appreciate. There has to be a better way than lying about it, but one doesn't immediately suggest itself.

Comments

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I think one way to do it is to be interested in the child's choices. "That's great! How did you come to choose that one?... Do you think you might like to learn glassblowing yourself one day?"

Yeah, that's the kind of thing I would've said about the book too. I was thinking more about the general case - suppose you have a parent who doesn't like reading at all. Is there any way that parent can encourage reading without sounding false?

I guess that the parent could provide lots of reading material, count on time and natural curiosity to get the kid looking at the books in the first place, and then express interest in the child's subject choices from there. Or I have a hazy memory of my mother saying things like "I never got very far into [Activity X], but maybe you will" - in a tone not of overdone valuation but of mild interest.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

I think either of those could work. Encouraging the child to visit a friend or relative who enjoys reading might also help.