Harry Potter' Star Donates Eyeglasses to Holocaust Exhibition

Terrific story'Harry Potter' Star Donates Eyeglasses to Holocaust Exhibition

I am personally touched by this news. What a beautiful idea for an exhibition and what a great way to get children, along with their parents, to see the exhibit.

As the daughter of Holocaust survivors who somehow survived as children, I'm always moved by stories like this one. Years ago as a teacher of immigrant children and working on a Borough wide Holocaust Memorial contest with them, I organized a class contest with my first graders to collect buttons. The goal was to collect as many as we could and make art trains out of them for an exhibition. (FYI this pre-dated the movie "Paper Clips" and yes, we won the contest!). I told the children a bit about the history, as much as a first grader could be expected to understand and the contest was on.

Could we collect 6 million buttons to commemorate all the people? After a week or two it was obvious to them we couldn't. Could we collect 1 million for the 1 million children who perished? By counting one at a time and collecting painstakingly it was obvious to the children that the number was too overwhelming.

Much too overwhelming.

'Educational' and 'Learning' - When Did They Become Four Letter Words? And Why?

Back again - hopefully the next post won't be so long in coming....it's been hectic and we've been dealing with all of the issues that I talked about in the last post. Add to that all kinds of school admissions issues for students from Pre-K through Graduate School...lots of the same anxiety issues although each level's search-and-admissions process are different. Mix in a bit of New Year's Resolutions for Parents, Kids and Family Units and it's been well... whew! Let's just say I'm really happy to have a chance to write here today.

So today's NY Times has an article about Scholastic's next book series "Scholastic Plans to Put Its Branding Iron on a Successor to Harry Potter" and I caught this statement by David Levithan, an executive editorial director at Scholastic "...we talk of it as being subversively educational." Ok - here's the problem I have with that statement.

I know, believe me I know that if you try and get children to do something strictly because it's educational the glassy eyed stares and yawns that greet you will make you never want to utter those words again. Sure there are other ways to get children involved in activities that help them learn, the problem is that "educational" and "learning" have become the words that people speak in hushed tones. Everything else is out there in the open. And I mean EVERYTHING else - but this topic adults are afraid or reluctant to discuss.

Here's the thing. Let's get "educational" out of the back rooms. Let's show it proudly and talk about it openly because educational can be fun especially if it's approached the right way. Because when we stop learning we stop growing and living the best and most complete lives that we can. Because everything in our lives can be educational one way or another. Because life is educational and that's a good thing.

Think about vacations. Think about reading something interesting. Think about trying a new sport or taking a new route to work. Think about getting a new pet for the family. Think about the first time you went on the internet. Think about the first time you shopped on the internet. Keep going - think of all the things you did today and that hokey little saying we say all the time "well, I guess you learn something new every day". How lucky are we to be able to do that?

Ok - I sound like some Teacher's Pet-Pollyanna-Nerd - none of which I was in school believe me. But I know that the greatest joys in life come from continuing to learn new things. Learning helps prevent brain degeneration as you get older, our brains have amazing plasticity which allows us to learn and re-learn and develop new brain pathways. It's all good. Really.

So. Take the word "educational" off the list of four-letter words and embrace it and use it with your children. Be excited about learning new things. Talk about the "new thing you learn every day". If you approach it this way - they will learn to do so.

The great by-product of this is that you'll encourage your children to be self-starters in new projects, ideas and worlds of thought. They'll be less bored because there will always be something new to learn and try.

As a person who's never bored because there's always something new to learn and try...I'll tell you it's the greatest thing in the world.

Study Links Drop in Test Scores to a Decline in Time Spent Reading - NY Times

They ARE kidding that this is news? Right? A quick reply to the emails and questions I've gotten this morning regarding the article and the studies. I haven't had time to review the studies so I'll only comment on the article with some general thoughts. (For current clients - any specific questions would be best dealt with on an individual basis.)

Ok - here goes. Again. And again and again and again.

Instill in a child a love of reading and they will pick up books and reading material on their own. They won't only pick up the book that everyone's reading because "everyone's reading it".

Instill in a child a love of reading and the ability to be still with a book and you enable them to develop ;
*the ability to entertain and educate themselves
*patience
*the ability to listen to themselves think
*an ability to sustain silent moments
*the ability to focus, to imagine, to picture, to concentrate and to take a leap into a world that has been transported from the page to their imagination
*a love of the written word
*the ability to ask and answer questions themselves
*sometimes the desire to express themselves through writing
*a broader vocabulary
*a curiosity about worlds they haven't explored
....and more and more and more (this was just for starters)

As for tests and test results, teach children to take tests and do well on tests and they'll know how to - take tests and possibly get good scores on them.

That's a quick response. More in the future I'm sure.

Meanwhile, talk to your children (of all ages) about the topics and areas that they're interested in.
*Go to a bookstore, the library or online and let them choose books and magazines on those topics.
*Keep books, magazines, dictionaries, encyclopedias and other reference materials around the house.
*Keep a daily newspaper around the house and discuss the events of the day.
*Encourage your children (of all ages) to read.
*Model reading for them - telling them isn't enough, if they see you reading they are encouraged to read.

Granted, I grew up in an education minded household which I sometimes affectionately refer to as the "learning lab". Both my parents adore reading and read to us, with us and to themselves. We had the school reading programs in our house (Dad was a school administrator before he retired) and our biggest treats were books. I remember my father coming home with a briefcase full of books and we got to choose one or two knowing that there were so many other fun ones left. It was hard to choose but we always knew there was so much more. My mother to this day is one of the most voracious readers I have ever met reading more than a book a week, not to mention magazines and newspapers. They certainly modeled a love of reading and knowledge. It was natural. It wasn't work or homework, it was fun.

I should mention that both my parents are immigrants who speak about 10 languages between the two of them with English being the most recent, so the fact that they were, and continue to be, voracious readers of English is no small feat. I will also say that a love of reading is one of the single greatest gifts they gave us and I am thankful for it every day of my life.

Give your children a love of reading and you give them a gift they'll use every day. I say that as a reader, writer, teacher and person.