Lisa Jose's story was so typical. So many of us have heard or felt these words: "My son doesn't like to read. I can't get him to be interested in books". But it might have been surprising to hear these words coming from Lisa because she was constantly keeping her son Ethan busy with extracurricular activities. For academics, Ethan was enrolled in Kumon and she followed the program religiously.
But the Reading worksheets didn't seem to be doing the trick. There was something missing.
Then one day, Ethan was asked to join the Book Club. The concept was so simple and easy to follow: read all the books from a list of books at your level. When you move on to the next level, then read all the books from that list. And so on and so forth. Lisa began checking out the books for Ethan to read and checking them off from the list as he read them. One by one, book by book, he kept on reading.
Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. Then almost a year later, I had a conversation with Ethan and things were quite different. We talked about several of the books and what he had liked about them. I was amazed at the vivid details he would share about some of the stories. It wasn't so much that he had developed a love of reading: he said it best when he said "I just like the stories". Nowadays, when Lisa calls out that dinner is ready, sometimes he will shout out: "Give me a minute, I really like this story!".
The connection between raising a child's ability to read and guiding him to fall in love with books had been made. But clearly that's not the end of this story. Was the secret simply to give a child a list of books and make him read from the list? Definitely not.
What made Ethan's story a success was Lisa. It was the way she patiently dedicated herself to working with Ethan every day. Sure there were many days when Ethan did not want to read or he would just get frustrated. But it was the way Lisa shared the burden with him, every day, that made the difference in the long run. She was fascinated with the books, so that made Ethan feel interested also. She asked questions and pointed out interesting things. She didn't just make him read, but she consistently read with him and they discovered the stories together. That made all the difference.
If you've seen the Kung Fu Panda movies, you will know that there is no "secret ingredient". The real "secret ingredient" for success in anything (whether it's that special noodle soup or how to become the dragon warrior) is being true to yourself, and being faithful to that realization.
In the case of teaching our children how to love books and stories, it really is essential to have a roadmap and a guide. But the most important component, the "secret ingredient", is US and our faithfulness to our children.
He and his mom inspire me.
Sincerely,
Mauricio Maruri
http://www.kumon.com/how-kumon-works
No comments:
Post a Comment