According to one famous philosopher, books drive civilization. This means that people depend on the wealth stored in books to advance their knowledge and refine themselves as human beings. Even with the current growth of the internet, books have a role to play in driving literacy. I experienced this fact firsthand during my transition from high school to college. It all began when I met Amelia. She was the sweetest girl I had ever met. From her lively demeanor to her storytelling, Amelia was a joy to be around. One day I was at the school park, a grassy area where students went to frolic on the grass or to enjoy their smartphones, laptops and iPads. It was rare to find students busy reading. What I would experience next would be the turning point of my speech, grammar and the general feeling about books. The following story details my journey and experiences with books and research.
As I looked for a place to sit, I noticed a girl seated on her legs reading a brown old book. Her lips were moving as her eyes darted quickly from left to right. “She must be a fast reader,” I thought to myself as I tried to read the silver engraving of the title on the spine of the book. R-U-D-Y-A-R-D K-I-P-L-I I tried to mouth the letters, and I must have been loud enough for she looked up and smiled. “Rudyard Kipling,” she said after I stared at her. “What?” I asked blankly. “The name of the author you are trying to pronounce.” She told me her name and began telling me how much fun she had after discovering old books. The book she was reading was the Jungle Book by Kipling. It was the first time I had heard of the author, but I made a mental note to look him up on Google. We talked for hours, and she told me how her family had moved from Nigeria five years before. The following week, we attended a book club together, where people took turns to read passages from books. I was beginning to enjoy reading. I read widely on many disciplines and discovered that I could now read passages without making pronunciation mistakes. The dictionary became my friend, and I began to learn what I considered to be “big words.” After discovering new words, I began to hear them being mentioned all over: in the news; by football commentators; by the preacher in church. It was then I realized just how ignorant I had been. I had listened to many speeches and teachings imagining that I understood what was being said, but the truth was that some words flew past me unnoticed.
With every storybook or magazine I finished reading, I felt increasingly confident to read extensively and discuss some of the facts I had learned about with knowledgeable people. Amelia was always at hand to listen patiently as I spoke on and on about science, geography and the arts. One day, I came across a passage by Cunningham and Stanovich (137). The authors assert that reading widely has cognitive consequences. This implies that reading widely gives an individual the ability to face a problem with multiple perspectives which he/ she develops from different disciplines and approaches discovered through reading. True to this fact, my academic performances began to improve. I was able to conduct research with an inquisitive mind and to argue out my points well in the exam situation. I felt confident among my peers because I had read more than most of them. In addition, I knew who Rudyard Kipling was. I learned that classroom-based involvement in ways of thinking that are culturally-based may make a significant contribution to an individual’s development.
Overall, I was very happy to be making progress in my language. However, I realized that I could not stop at that point. High school was only going to be the beginning of my reading and research. College was going to present tougher challenges and more opportunities for research than high school. The only way to prepare myself for the academic rigors that lay ahead was by continuing my new-found hobby and passion. My teachers always reminded me that even the world’s most knowledgeable people reserve some time for reading everyday and are never content with what they already know. I look forward to the challenges that lie ahead in academics and research.
I was excited about my progress in academics, so I sought to understand why my performances had improved dramatically. One of the things I noted was that my character had changed. I had become increasingly involved in class discussions and group discussions on assignments. Wells, G. and Claxton (11) talks about educational dialogues between students and teachers or amongst students and how they impact learning in a positive manner. Language could be used as a tool for learning if students know how to express themselves in terms of ideas and questions.
Work Cited
Cunningham , Anne E. , And Keith E. Stanovich. "What Reading Does for the Mind." Journal of Direct Instruction 1.2 (2001): 137–149. Print.
Wells, G. & Claxton, G. Learning for life in the C21st: Sociocultural perspectives on the future of education. Oxford: Blackwell. (2000)
