Janie B. Cheaney: Keep reading aloud

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, June 11th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Up next: Reviving the read-aloud. Commentator Janie B. Cheaney says sharing stories might be just what families need.

JANIE B. CHEANEY: A word to parents: if you want your children to be readers, read to them. I dare you to find one expert who contradicts that advice. Still, it seems a majority of parents are not so inclined. Recently the UK Guardian reported on a former elementary school teacher who asked followers of his Instagram account why they weren’t reading aloud. Some complained that they didn’t have time, or the kids couldn’t pay attention, or they just didn’t enjoy it.

That informal sample was no outlier. A survey posted by HarperCollins UK reveals that fewer than half of the Gen Z participants enjoyed reading aloud. Their children tend to regard reading as a “school subject” rather than an enjoyable leisure activity. Which is to be expected when reading is taught as a school subject rather than an enjoyable activity. Even avid bibliophiles often let go of the practice when their lap-sitters graduate to reading for themselves. But there’s a strong case for keeping it up even through the teen years.

For one, our culture is obsessed with the visual. Reading aloud offers young people a chance to slow down and form their own pictures called up by words alone.

More importantly, words shape reality. From their earliest days, our children learn who they are and where they belong when we speak their names. We say “No,” and give them a sense of lawful limits. We encourage confidence with “Good job!” Once they’re older, spoken stories can open doors to a wider world before they’re ready to launch into that world.

Third, shared reading is shared life. Reading aloud is experiencing a story together as it slowly unfolds over time and opens opportunities for discussion. It also makes priceless memories. Gladys Hunt, in Honey for a Teen Heart, tells of her family’s epic experience of going through the Lord of the Rings trilogy. They read at home, on long car drives, during a ski vacation and a camping trip–including one memorable day of rain and wind, spent wrapped up in sleeping bags. The reading of a saga was itself a saga of shared thrills and frequent emotional pauses.

Finally, spoken words have power. Psalm 19 begins with the heavens declaring the glory of God—the very heavens that were called into being with words. The psalm goes on to extol God’s spoken words in the law—as light, as truth, as treasure, as sweetness—concluding with, “by them is your servant warned.” One alternate translation reads, “Thus is your servant formed by them”—that is, by the words of God. In a very real sense, we are formed by the words of God, particularly as they are spoken to and over us.

To a much lesser extent, we are formed by the words in stories and books. Hearing them, as opposed to processing them by ourselves, draws us out of our little hothouse and into a web of interconnected experience. A worthy book can make that experience worthwhile: “rejoicing the heart” but even, a little, “reviving the soul” and “enlightening the eyes.”

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

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