Where reading begins...

Reading begins with wonder at the world about us.  It starts with the recognition of repeated events like thunder, lightening and rain.  Reading is the practical management of the world about us.    It was this for man when standing at the cave's mouth.  It is this for us at the desk, the benches or computer.  You are dealing with the signs of the thing represented.  It is quite conceivable that a true non-reader can only survive in a mental hospital.  So, when you hear the words "anyone can read" you may already consider that anyone already is.

In years before the printing press, the owner of the book was the possessor of strong magic and so was respected, or feared, which amounted to the same thing.  In more recent centuries since the printing press the teaching of reading was begun as a sort of matching game in which the child was trained to fit appropriate symbols together, with the letters and building up to the words or sentences.  Books were not to be mulled over, studied or struggled with.  The teaching of the alphabet might still be a key to the library's treasure, it was a shining, inviting instrument, promised joys to children, pride to parents and the words riches for the whole community. 



As Dr. La Brant said., "It would be absurd to think that the methods and purposes in the teaching and the learning of reading have not also changed with our world."  Our children are living on a planet that differs from  the one we knew.  The end product of our new world is the picture magazine or website that puts almost no strain upon the literacy of its reader and the tabloid newspaper that reduces current events to slogans,  nicknames and exclamations.  But reading, remember, is not restricted to the printed page.  Actually it never was.  In one sense reading is the art of transmitting the ideas, facts and feelings from the mind and the soul of the author to the mind and soul of the reader, with accuracy and understanding, and much more.

It was only when man invented symbols for the words in his mouth and the ideas in his brain brain that other kinds of reading became useful, possible or desirable.  Word magic is one of man's most wonderful and most dangerous tools.  It builds air castles, raises an army of dragon men, fixes a name on a star and sends human blood running through dirty gutters.  Men wanted to know things and facts and if the book could instruct them, they would read.  The kind of power that is respected and sought was the kind that move and made things and the knowledge of this power eminently democratic.

The teaching of reading should begin as early as possible, never sooner.  The child who has been prepared shows it by a willingness, an eagerness to learn.  Parents have more and more relinquished their own peculiar responsibilities towards preparing their children for what they want and expect.  We consume a mountain of print before we die, for amusement, for escape, for enlightenment and for living.  We have a gadget that pushes the child's nose down a page at the prescribed rate and another that whips his eyes back and for with the speed of a a sidewinders tail.  All we lack is a pill to make him want to read.