For the love of reading.

Today marks the final day of "Reading Rainbow," a delightful show about reading books hosted by LeVar Burton.

A report on NPR this morning described how children's television programmers have fundamentally re-written the book on educational television shows related to reading. The new focus is simple - the mechanics: phonics, letters, etc.

My question is, what about the JOY of reading? We're ready to teach kids all about how to read, but not WHY to read. Is the point not enticing a future generation with one of the great human art forms, one of the necessities of life, one of the things that gives power to the people?

In an age when we are already seeing declines in recreational reading, business reading, and are seeing corresponding educational difficulties... why would we volunteer to neglect to demonstrate to children that reading is exciting? Have people already forgotten that movable type printing made it possible to communicate with each other in times of difficulty, and that reading was reserved before ONLY for the upper classes? It seems we are heading in that direction once again!

Of course, there must be some sort of response to this shameful course of action. Everyone who can, volunteer to read to children in some place - the local book store, daycare center, library, or community center. If no one shows a kid that reading is exciting, the chances of them discovering it on their own... are not so good.

I recall the community centers and libraries of my youth in New England. There were films, books, excitement... a place where a child would genuinely enjoy their time around books, and in books. We learned to love the written word not for the power it gave us, but for the places it took us. We had, always, a secret world at our fingertips... a secret power to travel wherever the words and our minds could take us. It is a joy we have NEVER forgotten, and whey I, personally, sit down to read today, I travel through those brambles to the mindscape within every single time.

We must help the next generation see the joy of stories.

The Writing Class

The Writing Class. Those with disposable time which we fill with recording our thoughts, creating witty anecdotes, etc. You'd know if you were a member.

Well, I started at Rollins. It seems like it will be an intellectually challenging environment. I am a little concerned that there is no devoted literary magazine published on campus, but I have some ideas about that. (Edit: Actually, there is!! Specs Journal, it's called. I'm totally gonna go volunteer).

Every once in a while, as I sit in one of those hot Florida classrooms, I think to myself "this is not New York," and get a little twinge of regret, but those might be getting smaller. It's just time to focus and learn as much as I can again... get to business, and bear in mind where I am going. Everything on the school front moves that direction.

Of course, there is a fundamental issue with the full-time work, full-time school scenario... and it isn't that I'll be too busy to do anything socially (I am terribly unsociable, or asocial if you will). I am concerned that as I delve further into English that my job, which juts out in another direction, will become less satisfying to me on a weekly basis. I suppose that's all up to me, ultimately.

My birthday is next month. I'll be 29. No laments there, I just need to keep working. I hate inspirational quotes, and typically think people who regurgitate "ancient parables" and "snippets of wisdom" sound like jackasses (with a very few exceptions), but it has been said that most people quit their efforts just before they break. I have no idea how long it will be before I experience any sort of break, or if I will experience some sort of break, but I am going to keep working like it is just over the next hill.

A few days in to classes and I'm filled with inspiration, hope, and... a little bit of fire.

As they say at Rollins, "Fiat Lux."

Indeed.