On the Importance of Reading...as a Parent

This is a piece that was originally published in this summer's issue of the Beaumont Insider, a small paper our school district publishes once a year to show off the highlights of the last school year and to disseminate information about the upcoming year.

Reading is arguably the most important skill a child learns in school. We use reading every day. We use it in math and science. We use it to pay bills and fill out job applications, to stay in touch and to stay informed. And while children learn concepts, processes, and knowledge in the classroom, they also learn from us – their parents, guardians, grandparents, and role models.

So how can we best support our children’s struggle to attain the one skill that unlocks all the rest? In short, we must communicate to our children in some way, every single day, that reading is important, that reading is enjoyable, that reading is essential. By modeling fluent reading regularly, giving reading a share of our time, and demonstrating that reading is important to us, we will help our children recognize the value of reading through the example of our own lives.

Modeling fluent reading

In order to learn how to read, children must go far beyond the rudiments of merely “sounding out” the letters and letter combinations they see with their eyes. They must hear what fluent reading sounds like so that they learn the appropriate cadences of phrases, the natural pauses signified by punctuation, and the voice that writers give to their characters and narration. As their parent, they will look more forward to sharing this experience with you than with anyone else in their lives. You have been their first teacher since they learned to walk and talk, and when you read with them, you maintain that role.

Giving reading our time

Our children share our values, especially at the age at which they begin to learn to read.  If you take time to read to your children and continue to take time to read with your children, they will begin to value reading as something that is worth a portion of their time.  We all get busy and tired from long days at work and around the house. That makes the time we spend reading with our kids even more precious and valuable, and kids come, in time, to recognize it as such.  In fact, the busier our lives get, the more value our children will place on reading when we show them how important it is to stop the bustle at least once every day and make time to read.

Demonstrating reading’s importance

Children learn by emulating us.  They act the way we act and say the things they hear us say. When our kids come bounding in from outdoors and find us sitting in a comfortable chair reading a book, they process that as something that their role model feels is important.  When we tell them how much we loved a certain book when we were growing up, they learn that it is important to read a lot of books and to judge them and find ones they can love, too. When we take them to the library and spend time thoughtfully choosing books for ourselves, they see that even as adults, reading continues to be an important, beneficial part of life. By modeling a love of reading for our children, we help them to foster one, too.

Read every day. Read with your kids every day. Visit the library every week or two. Talk about books with your kids. Teach your children that reading makes them stronger, and you will have given them the greatest gift imaginable.

 

Boy Scouts of America vs. Church, unfortunately

I wrote the following a few weeks ago as a guest column for the Beaumont Enterprise, a Hearst Publication.

I didn’t know exactly what I felt.  The maelstrom swarming in my brain included anger, sadness, frustration, disappointment, confusion, and disgust.  The morning paper carried a title on the front page: Orangefield Church Drops Boy Scout Ties.

Reading further, I learned that the First Christian Church of Orangefield had withdrawn its sanction of BSA Pack 125 in response to the national organization's recent decision to allow openly gay boys to participate in scouting. 

Reading on, Section A later included a letter from a Mr. Radley of Sour Lake in which he condemned the national organization and made a baseless and illogical leap from the effort of some to push toward inclusion of openly gay adults to pedophilia.  It seems that the lack of foundation in his semantics should be enough to dismiss his allegation, but if you require more facts, look at the studies conducted by Groth and Birnbaum (1978), Freund et al. (1989), and Jenny et al. (1994).

None of these studies concluded any connection whatsoever between homosexuality and pedophilia.  Radley's fear is as baseless as his argument.  The anecdote upon which he claims his fear is based only supports the fact that pedophiles have, according to Radley, long been involved in scouting despite the fact that openly gay men have not.

I feel compelled, though, to return to the original reason for my dismay.  Daily, I struggle with the inconsistency of so many people in my midst who call themselves Christian.  I fail to understand the decision-making paradigm of an individual who wears a bracelet or displays a bumper sticker touting the slogan "W.W.J.D." while ignoring the very things that the Bible teaches us Jesus did actually do.  Jesus accepted.  Jesus included.  Jesus welcomed prostitutes, thieves, pagans - none were exceptions to His grace and hospitality.  He most decidedly did not turn away the children (Mark 9:37).

My tendency, as a Christian, is to place greater emphasis upon the edicts in the New Testament than upon those in the Old Testament.  In His wisdom, Jesus crushed much of the old law in favor of a new life built upon love.  I can find only one reference to homosexuality in all of the New Testament, one I have heard espoused in arguments forbidding the acceptance of homosexuals in the church.  In Paul's First Letter to Timothy, he writes that the "...law is made for the...ungodly and sinful...for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality..." (1 Timothy 1:9). 

But quoting scripture has, in my experience, often been the hallmark of persons desiring to make a point by taking a handful of words out of their proper context.  This is a case in point, for in that same letter, Paul says that the goal of his command is love (1 Timothy 1:5) and that he is grateful to God for His mercy (1 Timothy 1:13).  Shouldn’t we endeavor to follow the examples of love and mercy rather than holding strictly to a single tenet of a system of laws with which even Christ often took issue?  Read Paul’s letter to the Galatians and consider.

When I, in my life, ask the question "What would Jesus do?", I consistently come to a number of like-minded conclusions: He would welcome, He would love, He would not judge, He would not expel, He would include, He would embrace.  I find it morally inconsistent and socially reprehensible that the First Christian Church of Orangefield has the audacity to continue its existence with the word "Christian" in its name given its intolerant response to the BSA's decision to include.  It would be inconsistent for me to condemn the church for their response, but I cannot in any way support, condone, or appreciate it.

My wife and I have many openly gay friends - men and women.  Each of these is among those whom I hold in the greatest esteem and highest regard.  We have trusted an openly gay couple to supervise our children.  If they remain open to it, we will do so again without hesitation.   On the other hand, I know a number of heterosexual individuals to whom I would not entrust the security and well-being of our houseplants or of a pet goldfish.  Where does that leave the question of sexual identity and trust?  It's very simple.  One has nothing to do with the other.

Research has not been able to support the myth that gays or lesbians pose any threat to the safety and security of our nation's children.  Exclusion is the product of fear and ignorance, and it leads to malice and hatred (see Mein Kampf for one historical exploration of these ideas). 

Based on these tenets, I remain at a loss with regard to the actions of the First Christian Church of Orangefield except that I would apologize on behalf of all Christians to the boys of Pack 125 who endeavor to better themselves and their communities but are left with nowhere to do that because of the insecurity of a group of misguided adults.  My prayers are with them all.

Dan Pink's "Drive"

The following is a reaction I wrote after watching the video located here: Dan Pink's Drive

Regarding the experiments to which Pink refers and the conclusions the scientists reached, I am reminded of Ayn Rand's character John Galt who posited that one can buy the physical productivity of another human being or even "steal" that productivity at the point of a gun, but only a human being who wills the use of his or her own mind can sanction the trade of his or her mind's product. The mind cannot be forced, and apparently, neither can it be bought.

The conclusion that motivation can be narrowed down to three decisive factors - autonomy, mastery, and purpose - is easily translated to the education paradigm.

First, it is important that we give our students (by way of training, coaching, and otherwise developing our teachers to offer and encourage) some degree of choice in both the processes and products we make available in the classroom.  Myriad ways exist for integrating student choice into lesson design.  Teachers can use menus, point "score" tables with different combinations of assignments adding up to the student's chosen point goal, or group work wherein students can take on chosen roles in the group that best suit them, to name just a few. By encouraging our teachers to offer their students choice, we will increase the buy-in from students with regards to their own educations as they begin to feel and cherish the autonomy that guides that experience.

Second, it is imperative that we create a climate in which differentiated instruction is not just something that great teachers do from time to time but rather the order of the day, across the board for every child in every classroom. Differentiated instruction allows students to demonstrate their mastery regardless of their starting point. Through solid, research-based differentiation strategies, students find ways to use their strengths to accomplish goals, to practice their areas of weakness, and to accomplish the objective at the highest level of which they are capable. In this way, we give children opportunities to progress toward and demonstrate the mastery that Pink concludes is pivotal to success.

Finally, as educators, we must make the learning in our classrooms relevant to our students. In this, students will see a purpose to the learning and learn to explore their own inner purposes through the classroom work.  When we present students with lessons and materials that speak to them, we show them the purpose of our day's objective. When we go a step further and let students bring their own interests into the classroom (song lyrics during a poetry unit; receipts from a shopping trip while teaching percentages, decimals, or tax), we show them that the purposes that are important to them are the very reason that we strive to teach them to think more critically, evaluate more objectively, and produce with more investment and profit.

I can see where one might watch that video and think that it only pertained to business and the world of workplace organizational theory. Presenting it here, however, in our context, made it impossible to think about anything but how to motivate students to reach out and grasp the education we make available to them and to squeeze the very marrow out of it of their own volition.