Children's stories have always bothered me. Have you ever thought about the effect that certain of these very classic stories have on children?
Just think about stories like Snow white with the poisoned apple, Jack and the beanstalk and the giant, and even Alice in Wonderland where everyone seemed to be on a hallucination trip.
Ever since I’ve read Alice in Wonderland the story just freaked me out. I couldn’t get around the fact that a little girl would go down a rabbit hole chasing a rabbit. Perhaps I read the book when I was too young, but it still had an impact on me, and I have not liked the story ever since.
My mom used to read us stories at night until we could read by ourselves. I have always loved reading, but unfortunately, my sons did not pick up this habit. It is always a mission to get them to read something.
Through reading, I developed a vivid imagination. This got me into writing, it became a hobby and now it even brings in additional money.
We didn’t have television when I grew up so reading was the only option. I absolutely read anything I could lay my hands on. I used to get into trouble with my grandmother for reading so much and I could never understand that.
Some of the stories I read, made such an impact on my life. It helped to form me as a person. It is funny how our brains work, and just like songs from my childhood, these stories are all buried deep inside my brain somewhere in a hidden folder.
Many of the stories I read were scary, but I knew they were only stories. I didn’t have anything to compare it with. I knew that in between the scary parts, there were always some important life lessons hidden away.
Today, children are exposed to so much more than just stories. Most of the movies these days are not family-friendly, and children are exposed to so much more evil than they should be.
In a small way learning about evil, is not such a bad thing, because I believe that kids should know that evil is lurking everywhere.
Overexposure however can lead to kids taking the wrong path in life, because often kids cannot differentiate between real life and make-believe.
If they are taught from a young age what to look out for, then they should grow up to be more balanced people. Children should understand that life is not all about happy endings.
Reading has now become part of my teaching life as well. I give the kids books to read and then we have class discussions about the specific book. One of the books I picked for school was Harry Potter, but so many parents complained about the book and refused bluntly that their kids read it. I had to choose a different book just to get them off my back.
I just laughed quietly all by myself, because those same kids are exposed to so much more on television and with the type of games they play online.
Perhaps what society needs in this time and age, are simply good books with happy endings.
Kids are exposed to evil so regularly in their everyday lives, that they need to see that there are still some good left in the world.
If I could only get those kids off the PlayStations and into books, then that would be an enormous accomplishment!
Unfortunately, technology is always one step ahead. Many of the books I buy these days I share with my kids in class. These are all PDF books so let’s hope for the best. Perhaps they will surprise me when we are all back at school.
This was an intro to one of my favorite stories after television came to South Africa and it fits right in with this post.
How do you encourage your child to read?
