The Importance of Learning to Read

Reading is so very important for many reasons. From the very beginning we are encouraged to read. Our parents and teachers start out telling great little stories from the colorfully illustrated pages of a book. The need for the ability to read is bigger than any imagination can ever be. Some of the lessons we learn in school will never be used again but reading is not one of them. Everyone will use this strength in life. This amazing power of the mind will be exercised everyday of our lives. No one can teach you what to enjoy. That part is very personal and unique to each individual. Reading gives us great and never ending authority over our lives from kindergarten to college and way beyond.

I have wonderful memories of my grandmother reading to me from books that are now consider to be antiques. Bunny Bunnyville was my all time favorites. It had the best illustrations and the story encouraged me to imagine. No matter how many times I heard it, I still loved it. The pictures were big and colorful and the words would always take my young mind into the woods with all the bunnies as they painted the flowers for spring and as the tiny little creatures painted rainbows across the sky for everyone to enjoy. I knew that the words were there even if I did not know how to read them. As I grew older my grandmother would point to a word and say it to me and then later she would write the word on a blank sheet of paper and ask me if I could read it. It was at that very young age that I realized the story could not be told by pictures alone. The words at the bottom of those pages were the most important part of the story.

Years later after I had learned all the words in that book and many other books. I learned very quickly in school that I could not write a word if I could read it first. School is all about reading comprehension and ones ability to understand the assignments given to them. Words were not the only thing I had to learn to read. I had to learn to read numbers as well. Math is another lesson that will be used through out our lives. It was in high school when I started to see just how important reading was going to be in my life. The teachers would pile on the assignments and every one of them required me to read. Some of them required technical and others encouraged me to read for pleasure. I excelled at pleasure reading, however I did learn that technical reading was just as important. I used my ability to read to the fullest in college when most of the work I was asked to complete needed research and the capacity to understand what I was reading. Essay after essay pulled from my mind the need to read.

Now I have children of my own and I have read to them from the day they were born. Like myself they started out on colorful illustrations. I drew them to the books with my own enthusiasm. It did not take long for them to develop their own excitement for reading. I like to think that I am the beginning of the most wonderful ability in life. I am the person that gave them a powerful tool that they will use for the rest of their lives.