By Linda Mills
Reading is one of the most vital habits and hobbies a parent can cultivate in their child, or a person of any age can take up, because reading develops the minds and opens up new avenues that are important in the pursuit of education. Reading about any subject is an indispensable resource that cannot be replaced by any other medium even in today’s technologically advanced era.
Reading Better Leads To Speaking Better
Self-expression is a vital tool for every human being, giving individuals the power to express themselves clearly with better vocabulary as well as enabling them to have an impact. The more someone reads, the more they are able to shape and express their opinion, which is vital for critical thinking and for educational purposes. Reading widely also means various sources of information can be triangulated and compared with each other, which again lends itself to effective speaking and articulation.
Widen The Scope
Reading widens the scope of a person’s mind. Readers are able to empathize with others who may be completely different from them, and they are able to experience different cultures. One of the main objectives of education is to widen the scope of one’s mind and teach a person about the world in general including history, philosophy, and science without being restricted to the area one is born in or the culture one belongs to. Reading also makes individuals more creative and imaginative as reading uses many different neuron networks in the brain, which no other stimuli including visual can command. No wonder reading makes people smarter!
Read Actively Not Passively
Passive reading means you read the words, but don’t pay extra attention to them or employ critical thinking to ascertain the various meanings of the text. For educational purposes, critical thinking is very important because it encourages asking questions, seeking multiple sources of information, and seeking a greater understanding of context. Active reading is better reading, because it allows for greater retention and benefit for students.
Reading And Comprehension
Comprehension of the written texts is very important for educational purposes and the most basic way is when someone––student or otherwise––can answer questions after reading any text. This sort of fluency and concentration also affects a student’s ability to write effectively because they are more able to retain information, express their opinions after evaluation, and write it all down.
Many techniques help with comprehension especially for younger readers, such as the following:
* Keeping track of the new words (through reading) is very important in establishing a good vocabulary. Children can be encouraged to keep a journal, in which, they jot down words or phrases they like or ones that they have newly learned the meaning of. They can choose to revise from this journal and also be tested on it using exam questions or testing flash cards.
* Rewriting what the child has learned, asking questions on the text, or including their own opinion all adds to greater comprehension and long-term benefit from the reading. Writing summaries is also a great way to test children on what they have read and learned as it encourages finding the crux of the text as well as all the main points and rewriting them.
Reading Boosts Confidence
Every child and student needs to have confidence in their intelligence capabilities and in their knowledge base and reading, especially when it consists of high-quality material like reference books or research papers, which can definitely impart that confidence. Reading fiction also gives children and adults insight to be better judges of character and introduces them to circumstances they not be able to experience in their own lives, which creates invaluable insights and skills for life.
Reading Removes Stress
As any expert will tell you, academic achievement comes with long hours and plenty of stress. Reading especially good quality fiction can provide some time away from the hectic schedule most students have and can de-stress. Not to mention children and adults are still learning when they’re doing recreational reading along with the extra benefits of relaxation. There is a lot of research out there that shows a positive correlation of reading with relaxed muscles, lowered blood pressure, and even lower levels of cortisol in the body.
Reading Makes Better Citizens
Readers are also generally better citizens with good values and a lot of humanity. Reading imparts empathy and sensitivity which makes a person less willing to cause harm to their fellow citizens. For that reason, reading can be considered the most important activity in the field of education, because the more learned people are, the more they can offer to society.
Cynthia D. Griffin 