LACK OF READING CULTURE

 Reading Habit

The habit of fostering a reading culture in our children is gradually fading due to parents' lackluster focus on entertainment like Disney and Nickelodeon. To nurture the next generation of thinkers like Albert Einstein, we must prioritize giving our kids books. Consider young Zoe, who uses her playtime to read, enhancing her memory and sharpening her ability to understand and comprehend complex words. Start building a reading culture now!

The Importance of Reading for Kids

It is very important for kids to learn how to read from a tender age. Learning to read very young will shape the life of a child and push them in the right direction. To start, it helps them focus more on reading interesting stories than joining gangs or doing things that go against society.

Benefits of Reading

There are many benefits of reading that the human body can enjoy:

1. Reading enhances the brain and builds the memory.

2. Reading relaxes the body and helps in building mental health.

3. Reading expands the mind and makes it a place of information.

There are so many benefits to reading, yet it is lacking these days. One of the challenges parents face is not showing enough interest in the reading ability of their kids. It would be great if parents started teaching their kids how to read and write, or how to spend a few hours on a book daily. This would help in building a future generation that prioritizes reading over watching cartoons. It would be a double blessing if a kid started writing a story from a tender age.

In Africa, especially Nigeria, reading is often treated like a curse. A white man once said, "If you want to hide something from an African, put it in a book." I can say he is right; even those who can read are often too lazy to read a long text. They prefer to skim the text to the end, thereby bypassing the message.

One of the greatest challenges in Africa is that people don’t focus on important things; they don’t focus on things that are affecting their lives. Instead, they focus on irrelevant things, like two celebrities getting a divorce. Africans need to understand that knowledge is in a book and it can rebrand them. They need to understand that a book is more powerful than the politicians they worship.

The Power of Books: From Independence to Today

During the era after independence, Nigeria used to be a hub for literature. It was a country blessed with the best novelists and playwrights; to this day, the world knows of Things Fall Apart by the late Chinua Achebe. There is also The Concubine by Elechi Amadi and many more.

One of the best things that ever happened to me while growing up was learning how to read in an environment bedeviled with cultism, gang wars, and all manner of vice. Learning to read books changed my life; it made me a better person and built my logic and verbal reasoning. While other kids used the time to play around, I used it to read and sharpen my brain—I used it to train my mind to be attentive, retentive, and focused.

I am calling on parents to start pushing their kids to read and to work on creating a short journal about their lives, their challenges, and their observations. It would help a lot in building a united and well-focused family. It would teach children and parents to have family time together where each person tells a story from a book they have read or a book they have written. With that, a strong bond would be built on a foundation of books that foster togetherness.