THE BOOK AND I
I have a long term love affair with books. for life, I expect....
I know I was read to a lot as a very little child, because I began to read while sitting next to my mom and my sister, Pat while mom was reading to us..I was four when I began to read on my own...it happened naturally....I used to assume that everyone had learned to read under the age of five. I know now that most people do not...
By the time I was six, I was reading third grade books....I was a happy, friendly little kid, who told lots of stories and read a lot of stories...I thought the world was about wonderful stories. I was amazed that other kids couldn't read. I'd help them read! I was surprised that some of them didn't want to read. I was more surprised that some of them couldn't read, no matter what help they got.
By third grade, I was completely bored with text books. I started reading them like story books, finishing them, and then just day-dreaming and writing little stories or thinking of them in my head while the teacher and the other kids were doing class...I found I was able to follow the class and dream up my little stories both at the same time. This became my modus in classes for the rest of my life!
Fifth grade: I had glasses...turns out that there was stuff written on the black board that I was supposed to see from the back of the room where we tall kids were placed....go figure....
Eighth grade: a lot had happened...I was no longer so cute...I was tall, gangly, braced on my back and on my teeth, wore glasses, of course. and, had acne....I was reading more than ever...reading became a wonderful escape from awkward encounters with boys, and with my own poor self image...I decided I might as well be smart. So I did. and, well-read...so, I did....
Until Senior year, I kept on reading everything in sight. I lived in libraries. I still love libraries....I finally started having some fun in Senior year...going with great guy...my First Love...having a minor role in our school Musical....Senior prom...romance....there it was, the only thing that would ever slow down my reading...Romance!
So, Nursing School. Read whenever I could. All the classes tho, forever and a day, were all about medical matters and nursing matters. I stuffed whatever Fiction I could into what little spare time there was left...
Marriage. Six kids, counting the step kids, in seven years....still, I read....my Barbara Burns sent me books by the ton, so that I wouldn't be deprived....
In the meantime, I taught Reading all of the time....In Nursing School, I tutored kids one evening a week for two years....in Wisconsin, I tutored kids and adults in the Migrant Camps....I was determined to learn how to teach others to read...to enjoy reading....
when I became a teacher, I spent all these years doing just that, and have never regretted the effort of love to do it...so many kids and adults reading, and enjoying their first book, their second...and so on....it's so satisfying!
People, even the kids, get all shy and ashamed about not being able to read...it's such a pleasure to take one of my few real talents: endless patience: and slowly but surely do the magic of having them learn to read for the first real time...and then, watch them love their first book....often they have asked to keep that book...I have always given them that book. They come back and tell me they have read it over and over again...
In adulthood, I've reached a point where reading is simply something I do without thinking....I don't think that makes me a good candidate for being an English teacher, in a lot of ways...
I'm not much into remembering author's names. I'm not into analyzing the themes and the characters and total-plot-recall, and quotes and so on...I teach it, but I don't test it, and I don't dwell on it.
What I get for that is a lot of pleasure from reading, and a lot of students reading happily, lots of books, without complaint and without any anxiety. I know a lot of teachers who would say that isn't good, but I often wonder....why isn't it? Don't we all want the students to love reading?...it's a puzzle to me....
All my life, I have known very intelligent people who read a great deal...They can discuss literature and the authors in ways I truly respect, but can not replicate...I simply don't recall books as they do...how do their minds work that way?....
Books....any reading, it turns out, is more like a food for me...nourishment. sometimes a good meal. sometimes an OK one. rarely bad. usually enough. sometimes more. sometimes, thrown into the garbage!
Then, there's reading out loud! I have read to people, again, especially kids, all my life...I love reading out loud! I get into all of the characters, with dialects, if need be! I have all my readers read out loud...it's become their favorite way to 'read'...reading to and for each other...it keeps the story alive and lively!
At home, 've got my books down to one stuffed book case...those are the ones I keep. the others are all movable feasts....At school, the bookshelves are stuffed with all of my old books...
I think Books are almost over in the electronic age...you can pretend to turn pages on ibooks on the ipod now...but, how many people do? And, it's hard to get kids to pay any mind for more than a few minutes to anything...their computer games and TV time takes all the time that used to be there for reading...but, maybe it's just always been the same percentage of kids who have read...who grow up to be "readers"....
I take a book, especially a good book, with maybe fine illustrations, into my hands and into my eyes and I am often happy.
At least, I am away from every day reality for awhile, while I am reading.
At best, I am happy...and very far away indeed....
Books and I.
We have a good thing going on....
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