The purpose of literature is to provide meaning in our lives. Child
psychologist Bruno Bettelheim says that the finding of this meaning is the
“greatest need and most difficult achievement for any human being at any
age. Who am I? Why am I here? What can I be?” In his book The Use of
Enchantment, Bettelheim write that two factors most responsible for giving
children this belief that they can make a significant contribution to life
are adults (most importantly parents/teachers) and literature.
Jim Trelease states in The New Read-Aloud Handbook, “Literature is such an
important medium because…it brings us closest to the human heart. And of
the two forms of literature (fiction and nonfiction), the one that brings
us the closest and presents the meaning of life most clearly to the child
is fiction.”
Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and poet Robert Penn Warren
declares that we read fiction because:
1. We like it.
2. There is conflict in it-and conflict is at the center of life.
3. Its conflict wakes us up from the tedium of everyday life.
4. It allows us to vent our emotions with tears, laughter, love and hate.
5. We hope its story will give us a clue to our own life story.
6. It releases us from life’s pressure by allowing us to escape into other
people’s lives.
Infants:
Wordless Books – These are books that contain no words. The stories are
told entirely with pictures arranged in sequence. These books can be “read”
by older children to younger ones or by people who speak a different
language. They can “tell” the book by using the pictures for clues to the
story. The best way to read these books is by holding the infant in your
arms and allowing the book to be touched while you tell the story creating
a warm bonding experience.
Toddlers:
Mother Goose – Rhyming books are an excellent way to apply rhymes to a
child’s everyday activities. Adults should recite them during the
appropriate activity which would reinforce both the rhyme and activity in
the child’s mind. “Rock-a-Bye Baby” (sleeping); “Little Jack Horner”
(eating); “Jack and Jill” (falling down); “Baa Baa Black Sheep” (sharing).
Many more rhymes and activities to go with them can be found in my book
Teaching with Heart.
Preschool:
Fairy Tales – Examples of modern fairy tales are Maurice Sendak’s Where the
Wild Things Are, which deals with a child’s rage at his parents; Ludwig
Bemelmans’ heroine Madeline, who deals with numerous predicaments, and my favorite Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig whose hero is turned into stone but triumphantly emerges through his own persistence and the unfailing love of his parents. When we read aloud to children we are helping them find themselves and discover some meaning in life.
Education is not a preparation for life; Education is life itself.
(John Dewey)
