Classics: Why We Should Encourage Children to Read Them

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Marg
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Classics: Why We Should Encourage Children to Read Them

Post by Marg »

At age 23, schoolteacher and author Fiza Pathan of Mumbai, India describes herself as feeling “totally cool and self-actualized". She believes her success is due to reading the classics regularly since childhood, a habit she is now trying to help spread to all parents, teachers and students. In her brilliant Amazon ebook, Classics: Why We Should Encourage Children to Read the Classics, she states her case with passion, personality and precision.

The 90-page e-book neatly divides into 17 brief, mostly four-page chapters including a definition (“books of all time rather than books of the hour”, “clean, decent fiction written primarily to tell a story rather than make money”), favorite girls’ and boys’ classics (as voted on by her students), language skills and vocabulary, imagination, general knowledge, love for literature, descriptive powers, artistic and scientific temperament, morals, middle school, fun quiz and the choice of abridged or unabridged versions.

The content is particularly rich with details of her own and her students’ development in the chapters entitled Check This Out, My Encounter with Dracula, Frankenstein and Science, and Classical Characters Who Have Influenced My Reality.

Pathan’s insightful style drops valuable gems for the reader to take away. Here are just a few:
“Choosing the right first classic is very important in the education process”.
“Classics are like bound movie scripts for our brain production house”.
“Classics are the safest and most time-tested method to ignite the flame of creativity”.
“Classics are tools of information that encourage the student to think practically”.
”More than anything else, classics give a middle school student some direction in life”.
“The world is not a humdrum affair of facts but an adventure without limitations”.
“Children need a bit of good fiction to nourish them in a world that seems out to kill them”.
“A good writer will manage to help the reader create a good ending for him or herself".

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and have adopted the author’s prescription of reading a classic once a week, or at least once a month. This is not difficult, now that we can buy e-book readers and download free classics due to the Gutenberg project.

It is ironic that the author, as well as feeling “totally cool and self-actualized”, also writes, “The growing globalized society of the late 1990‘s has developed to such greatness that though I am 23 I feel completely ancient”. In wisdom, yes, she is ancient and her book can be a work of rejuvenation, not just for literacy but for humanity also.
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dea0045
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Post by dea0045 »

I wholeheartedly agree that we should encourage children to read the classics. I think that it is great that teachers are picking current releases to try to get kids more excited about reading but... Those books are more likely to get read outside of school or for accelerated reader. We should be teaching the classics in school because when else are kids going to read them (unless they are just avid readers).
I do find it curious though that the author of Classics says that classics are "clean, decent fiction". I think many people would disagree with that statement considering most classics and school reads are considered "banned books" for different reasons. Just food for thought...
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cristhian
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Post by cristhian »

I am really grateful that this types of sites are available to our community, in spite of the fact that many people nowadays are losing the habit of reading. Children are the ones who need to carry on this habit, therefore we as grown ups have to foster reading at schools, mostly. I think the best way to do so is through tales or with eye-appealing illustrations like for instance I`ve bought this book titled "Treasure Island (Sterling Illustrated Classics)" which I got and my kids enjoy it a lot you know since it has plenty of images.

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Marg
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Post by Marg »

dea0045 wrote:I wholeheartedly agree that we should encourage children to read the classics. I think that it is great that teachers are picking current releases to try to get kids more excited about reading but... Those books are more likely to get read outside of school or for accelerated reader. We should be teaching the classics in school because when else are kids going to read them (unless they are just avid readers).
I do find it curious though that the author of Classics says that classics are "clean, decent fiction". I think many people would disagree with that statement considering most classics and school reads are considered "banned books" for different reasons. Just food for thought...
That's a good point. I guess if you set out to write something for all people of all time, you are bound to provoke anxiety in some people with a vested interest in a shorter vision. To succeed in writing a classic and surviving being banned, you would also have to present an honest (clean? decent?) view. Abridged versions are needed sometimes. Classics certainly broaden the minds of young reader as they grow.

-- 19 Sep 2013, 14:46 --
cristhian wrote:I am really grateful that this types of sites are available to our community, in spite of the fact that many people nowadays are losing the habit of reading. Children are the ones who need to carry on this habit, therefore we as grown ups have to foster reading at schools, mostly. I think the best way to do so is through tales or with eye-appealing illustrations like for instance I`ve bought this book titled "Treasure Island (Sterling Illustrated Classics)" which I got and my kids enjoy it a lot you know since it has plenty of images.

Edit: website ref deleted
Yes. I really think "habit" is a key word. We can start by reading to them every day and encourage them to make it a habit to read on their own every day. If your child likes the book, with images, it was a good choice!
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cristhian
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Post by cristhian »

Thanks, hopefully they will eventually figure that reading is a skill that we are fortunate to have, so they will do it on their own, without the need of having someone pushing them. By the way, whenever you feel like getting book data you can go to and you will find a wide range of fun books.

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Post by gipps »

I'm not sure I can quite agree, depending on how exactly the word "classic" is used. In my experience, the classics are fine and good mostly, but they aren't exactly the most diverse group of books. Women especially are under represented in the "classics," so I feel that to say the focus should be so strongly on these voices is to be missing a huge part of the experience. I think, by and large, we do have to challenge the canon and get people examining why certain voices are considered the universal voice. Not saying that there aren't a lot of old books that deserve examining, but rather that I think it's a crutch that schools especially use so that they don't have to have a horse in the race for today's literary scene. Who wants to pick modern books to teach in schools when there are already entire lesson plans devoted to the classics? So yes, I think that many classic books are important to read, I don't think "classics" alone give a proper exposure to literature as a whole.
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Marg
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Post by Marg »

We have two definitions of classics in the top post, will they do? As far as 'canons' go, in this forum we can freely pick and choose what to put on own lists. I got enthused when I got a Kindle reader and my son-in-downloaded 60 greatest book from the BBC for me. For example, I loved the full. unabridged, illustrated copy of Pinocchio. If an adult read it to every child, or the chid read it, in Chicago, there would be no gangs and no gun shootings. By the way, I don't fret much over gender, since we're talking 'universals' , but you'd be happy to know that in the grade 10 English class my daughter taught, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Stone Angel. both modern and by women, were on the course. She agrees with you that, e.g., A Tale of Two Cities, would be too difficult to get the kids interested in. I don't agree with you that the old classics are crutches. Literature is the only tool we have to keep civilization alive and make the young grow up free and happy.
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Post by gipps »

I was just having a discussion of something like this about The Catcher in the Rye, where there is a book that is becoming a "classic," and yet it is a book dealing with the rather specific neuroses of the time it was written in. I think it speaks much more to that generation, and that time, than many other books, and I think there is a tendency for educators and other people to place too great a value on older "classics" and not pay enough attention to contemporary fiction that is going to actually speak more to children today. Because while, okay, some "classics" are going to have more merit than some contemporary books, it is as way of valuing what we as older people (not that old, but still) have already read and studied and passing it along at least in part because it's what we know and are comfortable with. Because it is more difficult for some to connect with contemporary books, which I do feel can be equally if not more poignant than many classics, this emphasis gets put on reading older books, which can't help but push a vision of the universal that just isn't accurate. I feel that while Jane Eyre was a good book, it only is progressive in context of the time and place it was written. It is still filled with problems that would, if it was published today, disqualify it from being taught in schools. And that is what I have some trouble with, because "classics" seems to be a bit more about nostalgia for people passing down the books than it is about finding the best books to teach or expose to the next generation of readers.
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Post by LunaRowan »

Classics are classics for a reason. Most show the development of human society through the decades and they cast a whole different light on history than they'd learn in any social studies class. They also introduce young readers to different speech and ways of speaking that would otherwise be lost to the annuls of dead languages. I encourage classics be taught just as in-depth and often as contemporary literature and to pass on these "classics" to further generations.
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Post by SarahPapesh »

LunaRowan wrote:Classics are classics for a reason. Most show the development of human society through the decades and they cast a whole different light on history than they'd learn in any social studies class. They also introduce young readers to different speech and ways of speaking that would otherwise be lost to the annuls of dead languages. I encourage classics be taught just as in-depth and often as contemporary literature and to pass on these "classics" to further generations.
Well said, LunaRowan! I think classics provide a glimpse into a literary past that is lost on current authors. I think they should be passed down for generations to come!
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Post by julianfroment »

I agree that children should be encouraged to read the classics, although I am sure there are as many views and opinions on what determines whether a book is a classic or not, as there are people. I believe that the classics, those that we generally accept as the classics, are important for children to read, as so much of what we talk about in the world, so many phrases and accepted myths, stories, etc. can be traced to the classics. I believe that they should be the basis of modern education, as so many of them were in years gone by.
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Post by Other Stories »

When I have my child I'll making an effort to read to her, as I was read to. As a boy it was my favorite time of the day, it settled me down enough to sleep and it brought me to read books for myself. I see it as a great way to bond as well as a form of education.

I only wish I had read more classics as a kid. The ones I did read myself were fantastic, even at the time.
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Post by Namrata »

Children need to be in touch with their roots. Classics are the foundation on which other books are built. They convey the sense of depth and tradition in the history of story telling. This leaves a lasting impression on a young child's mind. I think it a healthy culture which encourages reading of these classics every day to children. Time should be set apart for this. There is no telling of what these first impressions will give birth to, in a child's mind.
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Post by Skk5122 »

While I definitely see a place for classics, as a high school teacher I see first hand some students' struggles with the classics if they already don't enjoy reading. I think there should be a balance between classic lit and new things that appeal to modern teenage interests.

-- 24 Nov 2013, 11:49 --

While I definitely see a place for classics, as a high school teacher I see first hand some students' struggles with the classics if they already don't enjoy reading. I think there should be a balance between classic lit and new things that appeal to modern teenage interests.
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Post by tstaf4d »

I had a lot of teachers who used classics to introduce us into a genre and then would have us read a contemporary novel that connected with the classic. It worked really well for those students who would ask "Why do we have to read this boring, old book?'. She would always explain that despite the changes in society and the changes in people's interest the themes were still relevant and in a lot of current literature. Essentially, a blend of new and old seems to help students realize that classics (while maybe more difficult to read through) are still important.
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