To Persuade Our Children to Read

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVI, Issue II, 12 January 1901, Page 58

To Persuade Our Children to Read

Now that holidays are in progress parents will have an opportunity of seeing what their children read, and if they are wise of endeavouring to mould their taste. The amount of reading which the average New Zealand youngsters get through is fairly considerable, but it is of such a quality that half the time it would be better if he or she—more especially she —never read at all. This is to a large extent the fault of the parents, who never make the smallest effort to direct the tastes of their offispring. To attempt to force what is known as instructive reading on our juveniles, is, of course, a tactical blunder of the most fatal description. There is a curious perversity of human nature which resents the command, “ Thou shalt not,” when applied to what seems harmless. A great scholar once said if the reading of history were prohibited, the average youngster would sit up at night to read it in secret On the same reasoning, if you attempt to force history, you will find (in fact, most of us have already found) that it is loathed and detested. The faet is, that history is usually taught in the dullest possible manner, and therefore to recommend a lad to read it for pleasure is absurd. But, if we were to drop the long lists of dates, and give word pictures of the times, the people, a»d to relate the story of our nation as a gorgeous romance, we should sown see a change. Almost art children love to listen to stories of people, and on this love the method of teaching history should be based. To give a few of the striking’ point* of souse celebrity of ancient or auwtera l ii—and to ennaingly arouse interest in ail HO picturesque au individual said or dad, is far < , n« i - n rd-h . a t first supposed. I e»vc <>U at an exeit lug place, and >t is astonishing how soon

the youngsters, like Oliver Twist, will ask for more. But an appeal must be made to the imagination.; accuracy is certainly essential, but it is not always necessary to sacrifice everything to it. What romance that was ever written can equal the conquest of Mexico? Relate a few chapters of that as a starting point; the book will soon be demanded, and once you are able to prove to the suspecting youth—for youth is ever suspicious—that your object is to amuse, he will gladly follow with the romance of his own country. The historical novel has done much to help towards a higher standard of reading, but much more might yet be done by- this means. Why, for instance, do not more parents read Scott to their children? Not one lad in ten has even read Ivanhoe. Yet, if it were begun to them they would probably follow it with the great master’s entire works. It is because they have been taught to look upon Scott as “ so god for them ” that they avoid him. if the story were begun for them they would realise what they were missing. At any rate, the experiment is worth trying, and I recommend it as a holiday task for our grown-ups.