When I think about the benefits of reading, the one that means the most to me on a personal level, the one that I find the most valuable and the hardest to describe adequately is that it gives the imagination a work out. I often tell kids and teens (and adults, too) that reading is like any other skill: to get better at it, you need to practice, challenge yourself, and practice some more.
Imagination is like that, too. What saddens me the most about our teens today is that many of them seem to have really flabby, out-of-shape, underused imagination muscles!
I sat in on an author visit last week by Adam Gidwitz, a teacher and newly published author whose book A Tale Dark and Grimm came out at the end of October. I'm a big believer in synchronicity, so I had to laugh and figure the universe was trying to tell me something when Adam quoted Albert Einstein during his talk, since I'd been musing on this quote for days:
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
What was especially great about Adam's talk was that he pointed out that reading works the imagination, but what you also need to do is have time. Time to daydream, time to let things stew in our brains, time to look like we're doing nothing when really our amazing brains are doing the very things that make us human. There was a teacher in the room while Adam spoke who was so much in agreement with this sentiment that I thought he was going to bust a button (the first time I ever saw someone actually fit that description!!).
Our teens are plugged in ALL THE TIME! It seems physically impossible for them not to be (they are no worse than adults though--there should be laws against people who stop on the middle of the subways steps because they can't climb and text at the same time). So when are they imagining? When are they getting a chance to dream?
I read that in addition to the practical problems of illiteracy, the reason so many people who struggle to read end up in prisons is because not reading so limited their sense of what they-and their world-could be, that crime seemed their only option.
So what, besides offering a wide range of books and other reading materials for teens, can we do to encourage their imaginations? I have some ideas I'll share next week. What do you think? Leave your ideas in the comments.
Cash in the Coffee Can: $96.00
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