Thus far, 7 blog posts on reading. After each post, I think to myself – there, that’s done with.  Apparently not! So how many surveys and legislations and propaganda pieces does it take to get this simple point across? Obviously a lot more than I have managed to squeeze into 7 blog posts. Well then, here goes…

Yet another study

A survey of 4th Graders, undertaken by the University of Maryland, revealed that engaged readers from economically disadvantaged homes routinely outperformed less engaged readers from richer families. “Based on a massive sample, this finding suggests that engaged reading can overcome traditional barriers to academic achievement, including gender, parental education, and income.”

And another…

Researchers at Edinburgh University came to an even more stunning conclusion; literacy is the key to economic and social power. They followed more than 17,000 people in England, Scotland and Wales over 50 years (starting 1958). Their conclusion – the reading proficiency at age seven affected the socio-economic status of the children even 35 years later.  “People with higher reading skills in childhood ended up having higher incomes, better housing and more professional roles in adulthood,” the authors concluded.

Coming back to where this began – a friend has just moved continents to provide his children with better educational opportunities. However, moving as far as the local library to help his daughter resolve language-related does not figure on his agenda. His wife and he are diligent parents, currently working hard to improve her comprehension skills.  But how far that will work in absence of the reading habit is anybody’s guess. Because no matter how great the teachers in the new country are, the best teachers in the world will always be found between the pages of a book.

Links

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797612466268