"People sup together, play together, travel together, but
they do not think together.
"Hardly any homes have any intellectual life
whatsoever, let alone one that informs the vital interests of life.
"Educational
TV marks the high tide for family intellectual life."
The great solution to the closing of the American mind, and
any other mind, is reading together as a family.
When parents, youth and
children sit together and read through a book, especially an important or great
book, something happens deep within all who participate.
If the parents stop
reading periodically and openly discuss what is being learned, ask questions,
and listen as well as share their thoughts, the thinking is often literally
profound.
This is, in fact, the high point of thinking, since the practical
sense and unbridled intuition of the children often fixes any learned
misconceptions of the adults. Wisdom flows out of the mouth of babes, but it is
only really valuable if the adults are listening.
Youth naturally learn from adults in this setting, and the
children learn from the youth.
As mentioned, the adults learn a great deal from
the children--as any parent can attest.
The youth are surprisingly open to
listening to adults in this environment, and the adults are uncharacteristically
likely to be taught by their children and youth.
fact, this educational
setting is nearly a cure-all of family education dysfunction--and it often
addresses non-educational challenges as well.
Unfortunately, this type of
learning is much too infrequent in the modern world.
But it is so simple! Set a time and read something together
as a family every day or nearly every day.
Discuss as much as you read, and
gently invite everyone to participate.
And keep at it year after year.
If busy
times result in you dropping the habit for a time, resume it when you realize
how much your family misses and needs it.
You don't have to be perfect on this,
just keep trying.
It will literally upgrade everything about your family's
educational success--and it will have a lot of other positive consequences as
well.
