Send Ken To College

One thing I truly cannot understand is people who cannot or do not read.

One of my earliest educational memories begins in second grade. I attended Fairview Elementary School in Ottumwa, IA and I was lucky to have Mrs. June Lowe for my teacher. Mrs. Lowe encouraged reading, or dare I say she pushed reading. I am told by my father that my attempts at reading actually began much earlier. He told me tales of my 4 year old self and the times when I would get on his lap while he was reading the newspaper and I would try to read too. From his story I apparently had some level of skill beyond that of a normal 4 year old. I actually could read a number of words on my own.

In my second grade class was Lisa Strasko, my competitor. As I recall, Lisa was about my reading level and as such we competed with each other in our programmed readers and SRA’s. I don’t even remember what SRA stands for but I do remember that they were cards with stories on one side and questions on the other, and they were color coded. Thinking back, and remember it has been 35 years or so, Mrs. Lowe seems to have fostered the competition between Lisa and I. We were given special library privileges and often Lisa and I would be allowed to go to the library to read while Mrs. Lowe taught reading and spelling to the rest of the class.

From this early beginning I became quite a voracious reader. Why others refuse to read is beyond my comprehension. There are books covering just about every imaginable topic. I am a fiction reader myself. My wife tends to prefer biographies and non-fiction. Books provide learning, adventure, exploration and other qualities too numerous to mention. For the most part libraries are free and they hold worlds of information and entertainment. In most cases that I know of, if a library does not have a book you want, they can get it through the inter-library loan system (usually a small fee is involved).

I can only assume that the lack of reading is due to our increasingly short attention spans. A TV program can tell much the same story in a two hour movie that may take us several days to read in a book.

As a student, I do not read much that is not a textbook right now. In order to get my does of fiction I listen to audio books instead. I have a book in the car at most all times so I can listen on my commute to work or my drive to school. I have discovered a secret, if you find a good audio book narrator who is reading a series of books by an author, try listening to one of the series on audio before reading any of the other books. A good narrator give voice to his or her characters, a voice that you can hear in your head as you read later books in the series. Two of my favorites are George Guidall and CJ Critt. Both do a lot of work for Books On Tape.

I would like to encourage any non readers to listen to a book and see if that suits better than print. Most libraries do have a selection of audio books to choose from.