Categories: Parenting

Why Reading is the Most Important Thing You Will Ever Do

Reading is the most important thing a child can do. Yet so many parents don’t seem to realize this. As a teacher of English in Thailand, one thing I find very frustrating is the lack of reading that goes on by most Thai students. However, my friends who are teachers in other countries say it’s not that much different there. So why do more children not read and why is reading so important?

My mother taught me to read when I was three old. Consequently, when I started primary school I was the only kid who was in a corner reading a book while all the other kids were learning their ABCs. I had a head start in education that has never let me down. I ‘m now in my 40s and I still read around 200 books a year. I also read internet articles, newspaper, magazines and even some comic books (very popular here in Asia). All of this information has imbued my life with knowledge and helped me in everything I do.

Children today have so many distractions – TV, internet, computer games, sports – that they think they don’t have time to read and, quite frankly, they often find reading boring compared to these other things. But, if you can teach a child to enjoy books, that child has a companion for life and will always have the knowledge he or she needs to be successful in everything they do.

But why is reading really so important?

Words are our everyday tools. You use words in everything. You speak thousands of words every day. Most people write something every day. A letter, a resume, an article, a note, even two lines on a post-it – they all require words. If you read, words will come easier to you simply because of the vocabulary you will have. People who read are known to have larger vocabularies and usually find it much easier to compose a written piece or give a speech.

Vocabulary. Many of today’s teenagers think vocabulary isn’t important. ‘Cool’, ‘hot’, ‘fierce’, ‘rad’ – they think this vocabulary is all they need. Try interviewing for a job that pays more than a supermarket checkout position, and see how far using ‘fierce’ will get you in a job interview. What you say puts a vision in the other person’s mind of who you are. If you can express yourself eloquently, the person hearing you has already decided you are intelligent. In most situations in life, intelligence will get you where you want to go. Sounding intelligent helps you on your path to that goal.

Information. Reading gives you information. Everything you will ever need to know is available in a book somewhere. It’s available on the internet, or in a newspaper. If you love reading, you will find that getting information is easy for you. In any job, if you know how to find the information you need, you are miles ahead of your competition. Remember the old adage “Knowledge is power?” The people who are often the most successful have knowledge, and other people pay them for that knowledge. Reading will give you any knowledge you could ever need for any situation.

Imagination. Reading feeds your imagination. When I sit down with a book, I am instantly lost in the world the author created. It doesn’t matter if I’m stuck in a doctor’s waiting room for two hours, on a boring bus ride, or standing in line at the bank – I always have a book with me. In any boring everyday situation I can be immediately transformed into a different place just by the power of a book. My time is never wasted because, if somebody else makes me wait, I simply use that time to read. Then what I learn from reading is put to use in the rest of my life. As an only child, I spent thousands of hours reading. Consequently, I have never been bored, I can always amuse myself and my imagination works overtime thinking of all the places I’ve been and the people I’ve seen in books.

Inspiration. I write, I paint, and I teach. Books have given me the tools and the power to do all of these things well. When I write an article for Associated Content, my inspiration has often come from a line I’ve read in a book. My paintings come from images I’ve seen in my head from a novel I’ve read. When I teach, I teach my students with knowledge that has been in my head for decades. Even I don’t know where I pulled these ‘useless bits of information’ from, but my students love it as I can usually tell them about most things they’re interested in. Inspiration for everything I do in life comes from my love of books.

So, teach your children to read. Instill in them a love of books and of reading and your child will never be bored, never be lonely and never be lost for words. Your child’s reading abilities will keep them involved, inspired and informed. Everything they do from their first work in kindergarten to their career as a doctor, teacher or author will all stem from the knowledge they have learned from books. Reading is the most important thing you can ever teach your child because, even when you are not there, they can still learn, still be amused and still dream. Reading really will be the lifeblood of everything they do and everything they accomplish.