reading habit

I was once a grade school teacher. Compulsory is not a word I would like to use when refering to reading. I longed for my students to crave spare time in which they could read. I built a lot of hype around what I called 'dear time' in our classroom. It was 15 minutes in everyday when we would D. E. A. R. ~ Drop Everything And Read. It was heralded as almost sacred time in our classroom community, that we would protect from interuptions at all costs. They could read anything at all that they wanted, they could get comfortable and enjoy reading as best they can and the only rule was "never, never, do anything to prevent of friend from enjoying their full 15 mins of dear time. Once a week or so there would be some type of fun assignment concerning DEAR time....... like a journal entry where they could write about what they had been reading in DEAR time, or make of list of books the wanted to read during DEAR time in the future. My aim was to get them to see reading as a priviledge and something to look forward to, rather than something they must do for school or because they had to.

I'm a reader, and I love to read. However, not everybody is like that. I do believe that reading as a skill is a requirement to survive in today's environment. Being literate is a must. Everybody must know how to read. As for reading as a habit, I wouldn't use the word compulsory. Compulsory implies force, a "do-it or else" threat. I would simply it should be highly encouraged, because it can bring many positive rewards. Forcing someone to do it, will simply increase their resentment and will maybe permanently turned them off to reading.

I am a primary school teacher and a parent of two children. Reading books is an essential skill for life and it is necessary that children capture the love of reading when they are infants. Some baby books are suitable from birth so parents can't start too early. I think three and four year olds should look at attractive picture books. Children of five years old should be in the early stages of reading simple book and then their reading will progress each year until they are fluent. A book can be a favorite rather than a best friend. A child might be best friends with reading. Developing the reading habit should be compulsory along with writing and number work.