Tammy of Homeschool Comments on the Fly has an interesting post on the various reading lists out there designed to introduce our children to the wonderful world of literacy. She raises several good points, but my thoughts stopped right at the top with that link:
It struck me because we are just now listening to The Life of Abraham Lincoln by Henry Ketcham (1901). In chapter three, we find out:
In those days books were rare and his library was small and select. It consisted at first of three volumes: The Bible, Aesop’s Fables and Pilgrim’s Progress. Some-time in the eighties a prominent magazine published a series of articles written by men of eminence in the various walks of life, under the title of “Books that have helped me.” The most noticeable fact was that each of these eminent men–men who had read hundreds of books–specified not more than three or four books. Lincoln’s first list was of three. They were emphatically books. Day after day he read, pondered and inwardly digested them until they were his own. Better books he could not have found in all the universities of Europe, and we begin to understand where he got his moral vision, his precision of English style, and his shrewd humor.
Today, we do not seem to place as great a value on spending time with a book, pondering it and fully digesting it. After all, we have a book list which presents a sampling of the history of world literature to tackle if we are to be considered well-read. Lincoln did have a love of reading and he seemed to devour books when they were available to him. He certainly read his share of great books, many of which I am sure remain on these book lists today for good reason.
The books he read, however, are perhaps not as important to history as the ones he re-read.
As we assemble our children’s reading lists, I think this may be an important point to remember. As much value each of those check marks has as the books are read, there is greater value yet in the time allowed to fully digest a truly great book.
[tags]homeschooling, education, reading[/tags]
Welcome to Roscommon Acres, my little home in the country. I write here about life more abundantly, from the joy of a baby’s smile to the almost unbearable grief of losing a son. I am seeking beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of the spirit of despair (Isaiah 61:3).
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Well, should may be a strong word. But, don’t throw out the whole list! Why, Bread and Jam for Frances is on that list. I loved all the Frances books. Of course, they did forget to include The Story About Ping, another of my favorites. No list is perfect.
I am not really opposed to these kinds of lists. While we do supplement our library time with browsing, I use Honey For A Child’s Heart to help me find good literature for our home. We have read great books that I may not have otherwise found.
This kind of list would appeal to Marissa. She stumbled upon a list of Top 100 Movies recently and has turned the list into a MUST watch. She created a Word Document and printed it so that we can take it with us to the video store. We rent one each Friday. Last Friday we watched A Streetcar Named Desire. What an odd movie. I will need to totally rethink the innocence of my parents generation.
Oh, I’m not really opposed to such lists. Even my two year old has heard most of the books on the list.
It is important to read and be read to and you never know what book is really going to be meaningful to your child.
I do wonder, however, how much the limited availability of books contributed to some of the literacy of the age. Counterintuitive to statistics today which connect the number of books in the home to literacy, but I think it has to do with the value we place on books and reading.
At one time, books were so valuable they were named specifically in wills.
But my children all have their favorites they want to listen to again and again. Sometimes, I want to introduce something new to them rather than use the time on the same book…after all, there are so many great books! But there is value in listening to Heidi and Misty of Chincoteague and Pilgrim’s Progress yet again.
I am a re-reader and I love that my kids are as well. I have several all-time favorites that I have read so many times that I can walk away at any point remembering what will come next and just enjoying it throughout the day. My kids listen to books on cd over and over–they listened to the Narnia series every night for a year and all of them use it as a way of understanding God’s word. There are many lists out there and seldom do they contain all my favorites and often do they contain books I hated or would prefer my children avoiding at least until they are older.
Great topic! One that has troubled me the entire time my children have been students.
Reading lists began coming home when they were in kindergarten and I hardly recognized and of the titles; then middle school and I was sure there would be some classics there that I would recall having read and enjoyed, but no; and finally high school…and again, I saw maybe a title or two that I knew. Now the HONORS reading list had the titles that most children read 40/50 years ago, the classics, the books that had meaning and morals and lessons within them, but not not your average students.
As a teacher I wanted to include some of the classics on my list and was not permitted. In fact, some of the more well know stuff was dumbed down/watered down in the text book and that was what I was allowed to present: Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Beowulf in a version I had never encountered.
But you make a great point…more than merely reading the books, being exposed to them and checking them of the list of having read, spending time with them is more important: feeling their pages, enjoying their words, seeing them on the shelf or nightstand, being able to pick them up and turn to that favorite place or troubling spot, re-reading those parts that speak to the child in some way….these opportunities may be more important than getting through the book itself and calling it good.
As a partent of small children, it makes you rethink that dreaded task of re-reading the same story night after night after night LOL And as a parent of school aged children it might give us pause about culling the book shelves too often.
I know as an adult I have a personal library of only books that have spoken to me in some way. It in no way represents all that I have read, but it represents those works that have touched me deeply, that I return to and spend time with when I feel the need. It is also the way I have set up my older sons’ personal libraries–works that have touched them. At this time in their lives it is a rather small library, but I can tell you that I have seen them pick up those selections over and over and read them again and again when moved to do so.
Great thoughts – I’ve always been a bit leery of book lists; they can be helpful, but also enslaving.
Like Shawna noted, modern booklists are even more questionable, often with little reference to classics and often watered-down. And sheer volume can never compare to intimacy.