Childhood Reading - a View

“The books of our childhood offer a vivid door to our own pasts, and not necessarily for the stories we read there, but for the memories of where we were and who we were when we were reading them; to remember a book is to remember the child who read that book.”

― Lewis Buzbee, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History

I can still remember the excitement of reading Coral Island when I was a young boy (48 years ago). The book, while having gory parts related to cannibalism, was a very gripping read. Thinking back I can remember the boy I was and my passion for reading. I always loved to go to bed early so that I could read. When I was a teenager, while my friends were out about town, I was in bed with a cake of chocolate, a bag of peppermints, my books and my imagination. I dropped the chocolate and peppermints decades ago but it is still a pleasure to read in bed, bliss!

Ciao

DK

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Taking Children Seriously as People

"We don't yet know, above all, what the world might be like if children were to grow up without being subjected to humiliation, if parents would respect them and take them seriously as people."
~ Alice Miller

Children are a unique gift to society due to their spontaneity, enthusiasm and curiosity. Parents and grandparents would agree that having children around adds a joyful presence to life. Seeing things through the eyes of a child is like being a child again.

Do we cherish this child's view of the world? For a while we do, but when our children reach a predetermined age we march them off to school where their view is unimportant and the rule, little children should be seen and not heard prevails. School is a humiliating experience for many children - the slow, the divergent thinkers, the gifted, the disabled to name but a few groups of disenfranchised groups within our schooling system. Not all children are ready for formal schooling at the age of 5 or 6. We know that boys mature later and probably don't "fit" into a school environment until the age of 7 or 8. In fact I would argue that none of our children are ever ready for school as it is institutionalized now. Schools are about social control, not education.

What do you think?

DK

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Children as Readers

Children have a layered relationship with words..., they enjoy them on an aural/oral and visual level as much as for meaning, and sometimes they live happily with a word on an aural level - without knowing its meaning.

Kate de Goldi

The thought of a layered relationship with words excites me, even as an older adult. I too, enjoy the sound and look of some words, without the need to understand them. The Jabberwocky, a poem by Lewis Carroll, springs to mind here. Nonsensical at the level of meaning but with a rich texture at the aural and visual levels.

Once again we are led by the little children.

As a converse, reading some of the post-modern literary critics there is no enjoyment at any level and sometimes it appears to be a literary and academic attempt at a Jabberwocky stripped of meaning, charm or fun.