Andrea Lachance is an Assistant Professor of Education at SUNY Cortland. She and her family live in Ithaca.
As a child, I was an avid reader. My mother often tells the story of how, as an early reader, I would follow her around the house as she did the laundry or dishes reading aloud from my books to her. When I sensed that I might not have her full attention, I would shout, “Are you still listening?” Wonderful mother that she is, she always responded, “Of course!” My elementary school years were filled with library visits and long, uninterrupted hours in my room reading.
Then somewhere in high school, my relationship with reading changed. I certainly read – but it was a different kind of reading. My reading diet was heavy with textbook chapters: History, Geography, Biology, and Chemistry. The books I read in English class were not books that I chose, but books that were “good” for me. I read what I was told to read figuring that this was just one of the prices I had to pay to become an adult!
College was more of the same. I had chapters upon chapters of assigned reading. Attempting to be a dutiful student, I plowed through it as best I could. However, there was so much that I never felt completely caught up. So, to keep myself on track, I denied myself “fun” reading. If I was going to read, it had to be reading “for work” or not at all.
By the time I left college, I had nearly forgotten what “fun” reading was. I still read newspapers and magazines, but I had fallen out of the habit of pursuing books for pleasure.
Fortunately, my first job after college took me to Washington, DC where I worked in a after school/summer program for inner city children. The group of people I worked with did a funny thing: they read – just for the heck of it!! And not only did they read, they talked about what they read; they swapped books; they even went to bookstores just to browse!!
In observing all this “adult” literacy behavior, something suddenly clicked for me. I recalled the hours I had spent in the library as a child, choosing my books with the anticipation of flopping on my bed back home and diving into my selections. My years in high school and college had somehow convinced me that that type of reading was only a joy of childhood, not of adulthood. Yet, here were these adult people clearly experiencing the pleasure of reading that I had experienced as a child.
This was the start of my “reading rebirth.” I began reading whatever I could get my hands on – classics, best sellers, non-fiction. At the same time, I began my job tutoring elementary school kids and started rereading books I had read as a child. It was thrilling to re-discover and share these “old friends” with my students.
After eight years of teaching elementary and middle school students (and continuing to read – both for work and for fun - along with them), I now teach college students who are preparing to become teachers. And as is often the case, I find that my students remind me of my “college” self - particularly in regards to reading. To many of them, reading is only work – something that is assigned to them and demanded of them.
But I am fortunate in that the content of my courses allows me to help them discover (or re-discover) the joy of reading. Because my colleagues and I are helping our students to prepare to be elementary school teachers, we can integrate children’s literature into our class activities. We often read these beautiful stories to our students as a means of helping them see how such books are powerful tools for learning.
And just like with children, the magic of these stories starts to work on our college students. They recollect their own happy memories of being read to as a child. They begin to recall their favorite books. They begin to remember a time when reading was about play as much as it was about work. And thus begins THEIR “reading rebirth.”
Watching my students rediscover the joys of reading is almost as fun as watching my own two children develop their initial love of reading. Their enthusiasm and excitement are remarkably similar and inspiring. My hope is that if enough of our students maintain this love of reading throughout their careers, then my young children (and yours) will never need to experience a reading “rebirth.” As educational leaders, these future teachers will only foster – and not extinguish – a growing love of reading.
Family Reading Partnership
Ithaca, New York
Phone: 607-277-8602
Email: office@familyreading.org
