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Reconnecting with Reading

Dale’s most recent blog post here in Education, The Most Vital thing You Can Do for your Child’s Education, really got me thinking. It was only just two weeks ago that I actually asked myself this question in my head, “I wonder when we should start reading to Cillian?” I’d like to take this moment to thank, Dale, for her input on this subject and encourage you to go and read the whole thing here.

One of the things my wife and I did to turn my son in the womb when he was breech was to talk to him. I’m a theatre guy, so the spoken word is of great value to me. I remember my own childhood. I remember loving books so much. I always had a special place in my heart for Dr. Seuss. The images were complex and weird. The words were bouncy and delightful. The rhythms stuck in my head after playing in my ear. My grandparents bought, over the years, the entire set of Dr. Seuss books for their four grandchildren. My siblings and I were (and still are) their only grandchildren.

How has this gift benefited my life? There is no way to tell for sure but recently I visited an art museum simply because they were showing original artworks of Dr. Seuss. This was recent. I’m nearly thirty and those books, and those images, and those rhythms still strike a chord in me. Whenever I see one in a doctor’s office or waiting room I instantly pick it up and begin speaking, out loud, the wonderful phrases inside the book.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about those books is that they yearn to be read aloud. It is impossible, I think, to read those words without speaking them. You need to hear them. The are music. They demand to be spoken! But alas! Your tongue curls up! There is a muscle spasm! Your mouth must fight through the simplicity of quitting. Stopping is much to easy. The phrase, at least, must be finished. By the end of the phrase, however, you are encouraged on to the end. The pages must turn through the last.

These are my feelings today on my childhood books. If the books that were read to me then are still important to me now I’m willing to wager their influence was great. I begin reading to my son today. His formal education begins now.