The courage to be curiosity

Curiosity drives one to know what is not easily apprehended. It takes courage to go where your curiosity takes you. Good readers are curious people, they strive to know. While reading an essay on the significance of reading in a person’s life, I came across an anecdote of a child who dares to ask big questions. Like a mountain to be scaled, such a child can look a question in the eye and does not let fear foreclose their looking and seeing and understanding.

Reading encourages people to tackle the big questions as we vicariously inhabit a story. The best of stories are a route to scale the mountains of questions. Not all  ‘readers-travelers’ know the route and books are a great help since they contain the choices of so many other explorers and mountain-climbers. They are the ones who can point out the best trails and reveal the most secret passages.

So if you want to  stare the enormous question in the eye, you’ll be glad you brought some books in your backpack.  The person who reads holds this world of exploration in their hands.  Through curiosity they come to know, like the highest peaks in the world, questions love to be scaled and pondered.  

A new U.S. Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo

Joy Harjo will become the 23rd poet laureate of the United States, making her the first Native American to hold the position. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation. In her own words—

"It's such an honoring for Native people in this country, when we've been so disappeared and disregarded," Harjo says. "And yet we're the root cultures, over 500-something tribes and I don't know how many at first contact. But it's quite an honor ... I bear that honor on behalf of the people and my ancestors. So that's really exciting for me."

It seems as fitting time to recommend Barry Lopez’s book, *Crow and Weasel. Set in the mythic past and inspired by the traditions of the North American Plains people, this fable of self-discovery follows Crow and Weasel as they face unfamiliar perils on a quest for knowledge and wisdom  The book contains one of my most treasured souvenirs—a quote directly from the book I like to keep ad share with others.

“The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. That is why we put these stories in each other's memory. This is how people care for themselves.”

Make the most of summertime reading—strategies to avoid the summer slide.

We know from extensive research that without continued reading in the summer, students fall back in their reading achievement. The good news is that the latest research shows students who read at least 4 books over the summer maintain or even increase their skills. Reading is a skill that continues to improve through practice. The more you read, the better reader you become. Children who are good readers enjoy reading.

Strategies to avoid the summer slide

• Ramp up the “pleasure principle” in reading and love of story.

• Increase the time you read aloud and talk with children about what they read. Children who talk about a story have better comprehension skills, which build their confidence as readers. Children need confidence to enjoy reading.

• Find a balance between school time reading and summer time reading. Summertime reading should be all about pleasure.

• SLOW DOWN: get off the literary stair master. I would rather your children read fewer books, know and love them well, than read many books they don’t really like or even remember.

• Re-reading is not cheating! Encourage your children to revisit the books they have read. Everyone gets more from a book they have read more than once.

• Allow your children choice in what they read

• At the same time, suggest books you think they will like.  The Scholastic Study on Children and Reading found that children said they did not like to read because they could not find books they liked to read. Children want autonomy and independence in their reading but they also need guidance in what to read. Ask yourself: “Who is going to hand them the memorable books they will carry into their young adulthood years?”  Make your local librarian and local independent bookstore seller your new best friends.

• Audio books are terrific—and they build vocabulary and instill a love of story. They are also not associated with school assignments.

• Relax and let go of how challenging a book is—please do not tell children the book they are reading is too easy.

Set an example and follow your good advice: Read more this summer and enjoy what you read.

Why Read?

The following is the most heartfelt writing I have met in a long time that makes a case for why we read, written by Alain de Botton, a Swiss-born British philosopher and author.

“We wouldn’t need books quite so much if everyone around us understood us well. But they don’t. Even those who love us get us wrong. They tell us who we are but miss things out. They claim to know what we need, but forget to ask us properly first. They can’t understand what we feel — and sometimes, we’re unable to tell them, because we don’t really understand it ourselves. That’s where books come in. They explain us to ourselves and to others, and make us feel less strange, less isolated and less alone. We might have lots of good friends, but even with the best friends in the world, there are things that no one quite gets. That’s the moment to turn to books. They are friends waiting for us any time we want them, and they will always speak honestly to us about what really matters  They can be our very closest friends.”

I just had the pleasure of  teaching Man’s Search for Meaning, by Victor Frankl which is a book that can’t help but influence how you see life as it poses the all important question that the best of literature asks, what is the meaning and purpose of a life?

Here is the quote that framed the discussion—

“Things happen for a reason. But sometimes that reason comes only after they happen. It is not a reason we find, but one we craft, sculptured from our own pain and loss, bound together with love and compassion. As hard as we may search, we can only see it when we stop to wonder, looking back to see where we’ve been and what we’ve learned. It’s a grueling process, this forging a reason from the stuff of life, but it’s all we can do. And what we get for our efforts is a story.”  Joel Ben Izzy