"If you wish to be a good reader, read."
Epictetus
Last Tuesday, Emerson teachers attended a full day workshop where we learned about the human brain. We learned all kinds of things about the reptilian brain, the cortex, and more. The most interesting part to me was how the brain stores information. We have just a short time to start growing those connections that will serve us throughout life. Most of those connections (for reading, language development, and so many other things that are related to what are generally considered to be academic skills) are formed by the time you read the age of 10. Many have to be firmly in place before age five to be acquired without a lot of extra work.
For me, life without reading is impossible to imagine. I read for pleasure and for information. I made a pact with myself when I was about 10 that I would read every night before bed. With few exceptions I have held to that pact for nearly fifty years. It may be no more than ten minutes, but reading gets me ready for bed and my mind processes what I have read while I sleep.
As a librarian and as a mother, I put a great deal of effort into getting the world to be a place full of readers. Read on, read on, and enjoy all that reading has to offer.
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