Reading and Literacy

The idea of using literature to enhance education is a popular and effective method of stimulating children to learn.

A large part of education is what is known as factual learning, bombarding children with facts to learn and digest and be assessed by exams to see if they have remembered these facts which have bombarded their brains. Although these test the memories of the children, often the facts are forgotten soon after the test is finished, and the teaching program goes onto another topic which the child must remember for testing purposes, in a continuous cycle of memorizing, retrieving facts for examination purposes and then promptly forgetting them again. Surely there must be another way to stimulate a child’s brain and bring it to life.

Literature for Learning

The entertainment value of literature at story time has long been used, particularly for young children, often at the end of the day when the children are quite tired, and a nice story can help them to relax and enjoy the last minutes of the school day. But literature is not only for entertainment, there is a school of thought which clearly distinguishes between literature for learning, and literature for pure entertainment.

A good story can be not only memorable, but also help to stimulate the minds of the children to think intellectually, morally, socially and spiritually if they are taught and encouraged to do this, even from a very early age. In this way, authors of children’s stories have a moral responsibility to ensure that their stories, while entertaining, also have a good message of social and moral responsibility for their readers, and help to ascertain in general, right from wrong, good from bad etc. These writers can help the child to address many common everyday issues, and reflect the experiences of the story into their own world and the issues they may face at any time, as they are growing up.

Learning through Imitation

If you are in the position to observe a school yard after they have been hearing a particular story, you may well notice that some of the children will, in effect, act out the characters or the events which have captured their imagination, and in doing so deal with everyday situations which they may have otherwise found difficult. Many times ancient fables carry wonderful messages which teach children about core values which play an important part in growing up. “The Tortoise and the Hare,” for example, shows how the slow but determined tortoise wins the race, and the quick, but lazy hare is thoroughly beaten.

Literature Enhances Education for Older Children

There is nothing quite like a good story, or an interesting poem to stimulate the mind. Exciting adventure stories which take the children on a tale of mystery and excitement, thought provoking stories which make the children look differently at situations which they may face themselves at some stage, all goes towards the development and further education of children in schools everywhere.