My Wish

I've always been fascinated by those who struggle in school. Each struggling learner has his own difficulties, barriers that stand between him and achievement. Some are silent sufferers, others act out in small or destructive ways. Some become good parents, employees, and citizens. And still others turn their lives totally around to become highly successful in business, science, or the arts.

What bothers me is that too often, many children, at an early age, get written off as failures and are blamed for their learning difficulties, as if they have the ability to do something about them. In actual fact, they are often victims. Victims of poverty, hunger, neglect, child abuse, even learning disabilities.

For as long as I can remember, I have thought of these strugglers as being disenfranchised by society. I've made it a goal in life to help them to turn their lives around. Ever since reading to my own children when they were young, I began to believe that reading to children in a safe environment is the key to them building a strong foundation for learning through reading.

A healthy intake of stories, songs, and poems at an early age and beyond can do more to educate our youth than 'revolutionary' teaching practices.

By high school and often earlier, too many children have turned away from reading, often because it is driven into their heads that reading is good for them. Unfortunately, what we are told is good for us too often has the bad taste of good medicine.

Another thing that spurred me on to believe in the power of reading was the realization that in hockey, children learn the rules not because they love them, but because they love the game.

At an early age, children love stories, songs, and poems. Take advantage of this. Read to them. Read to them again, again, and again. Albert Einstein once said, "If you want brilliant children, read them nursery rhymes, if you want them to be even more brilliant read them more nursery rhymes."

Why? Because every story, song, and poem is jam-packed with grammatical, syntactical, and spelling models as illustrated in my article Beyond Words.

Children are born to be little language sponges. It has been proven scientifically that from birth to about the age of seven, children have the innate ability to absorb language at a rate that would make an adult's head spin. Read, recite, and sing to young children daily and you will be giving them the building blocks of language, the Lego of Literacy.

Need I mention the word play. Play is one of the strongest tools for stimulating learning. Not only that, it is the key, as my hockey metaphor suggests.

My wish is that every parent and teacher of children ranging in age from newborns to age seven fill their children's lives with story books, songs, music, and dance, that they also surround their children with visual arts. And do not forget sports. Healthy minds need healthy bodies.

But not competitive sports. Not yet. Try to keep the competitive nature of adults out of the picture until later, until children have been able to build a strong foundation of language through the love of reading. On the other hand, there will be those children who are born to be competitors. Support their competitive nature, but try not to allow your coaching zeal to overpower your child's natural growth.

I admit that it is a tall order for parents and teachers to read to their children and students every day. As much as possible, bring in the artists: the authors, the singers, the dancers. Let the professionals do what they do best, teach through the art of play.

At what cost, you might say? These are tough time. We can't afford the luxury of bringing artists into our schools anymore. On the other hand, we can't afford not to. For this nation, for any nation, to grow and grow strong in this copulative world, it needs to continuously replace its creators and innovators with young blood.

New ideas flow fastest through the veins of the young. Let us not waste our greatest resource by blaming children for their inability to learn. Let's stimulate their learning abilities through the natural process of play. Play based on the arts, all the arts.