Engaging the Mind Through Reading - Essay Example

Introduction Many quotes abound as to the importance of constantly engaging your mind through reading. One of my favorites states that ‘it is chiefly through reading that one enjoys intercourse with superior minds’. I remember my early years in school, learning how to read Janet and John using a card to cover the sentences beneath so that I would not mix them up. As I grew older, I began to actively seek out books and my very first novel was a Secret Seven series. Enid Blyton sure did a fantastic job engaging a child like me and together with her other famous series, Adventures of a Wishing Chair, I was able to soar to enchanted lands and make friends with fairies and elves alike. In my teens, I helped unearth mysteries and solve crimes with the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Later on, I sat in the courtroom and watched Atticus Finch deliver a riveting closing argument in defense of Tom Robinson in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Recently, through Freakonomics by Steven Levitt, I learned that what passes for conventional wisdom in the society is not necessarily truth. This reading albeit for fun was quite instrumental in laying a foundation for more serious academic work as well as arming me with knowledge that helped me make sense of the various issues I encountered in life. Having profited from the knowledge I gained, I second Mark Twain in his classic assertion that he who cannot read good books has no advantage over him who cannot read at all. College students today are more concerned with grades than they are with acquiring knowledge. Students have realized the importance of having good papers in order to succeed in the outside world. They therefore endeavor to ensure that the grades they get are spick and span, which is often in great detriment to the knowledge gained in the courses that they pursue. As a result, untold hundreds of students roll out of campus half-baked but with excellent grades at which most employers cannot help but marvel. Zinssner quotes a fellow professor who bemoaned that in previous years, the key question he would get from students was on how they could make a difference in the world. However, over the years, this question changed to the kind of subject combinations that would be favorable to enable one to pursue a particular kind of course. Such students almost certainly end up not benefiting the society one single bit since all they did was to cram for the sake of passing an exam. He further highlights such problems by pointing out to students pursuing reputable courses such as medicine just for the sake of pleasing their parents. He states that as they go to the laboratories, the students are not at all joyous and appear drab. Granted, such careers come with the assurance of high income as well as prestige in the society. However, as Zinssner explains, these careers only serve to inflate egos but the student never attains full potential since he or she never gets the opportunity to explore his or her hidden talents. He cites for example, an artistic student whose desire is to pursue the arts but his or her parents beset him or her not considering this as a glamorous career. The neglected courses on the other hand have the potential to stoke creativity and critical thinking skills. Such skills are crucial as they cut across all spheres of life. Such courses are mainly humanities such as history, which find themselves relegated to the bottom shelf since they do not carry importance. Such subjects, according to Zissner, help students put daily on-goings in life into perspective thus producing an all round scholar, able to effectively conduct his or her duties as an agent of social change. Although reading does have its treasures, certain kinds of reading are not at all beneficial. MacFarquhar argues that there is too much hype on the value of reading yet some books do not serve to make us better individuals. The valorization of books is overstated especially when paralleled to other pass times such as watching the television and surfing the internet. Various scholars assert that reading is an active task whereas watching the television is passive. Such assertions are, in MacFarquhar’s views, nothing short of sophomoric since watching plays is never said to be passive. Similarly, some reading only serves to provide relaxation, which is no different from someone who takes beer or watches television to get the same effect. We cannot overemphasize the importance of reading in terms of its applications to daily life. This fact is distressingly familiar among illiterate people who seem to swim upstream in their day-to-day interactions. Kozol paints a poignant picture of the hassles they undergo due to lack of this vital skill and often find themselves stranded owing to their ineptitude. A mother unable to read emergency measures for choking would agonizingly have to watch her beloved baby suffer a most painful death. Another would have to feel the sting of shame at not being able to read a bedtime story to her 5-year-old daughter and instead have the child read to her. Another illiterate, unable to read the recommended prescription for some medication may end up taking an overdose. A man at the restaurant unable to read the menu will have to settle for whatever meal the waiter proposes. Another man, whose car breaks down on the freeway, makes a desperate call to the police department to send out a car to rescue him. Eager to help, the police ask him to read the signpost close to where he is in order to get a bearing. A sad affair indeed since the man cannot read and may have to wait for a Good Samaritan to drive by. To compare such a person with a half baked university graduate whose only forte is an ability to cram would be unrealistic. However, the illiterate person is not strait jacketed from effectively carrying out other duties in him and it is very possible that he can do tasks far better than the ‘educated’ graduate can manage. The graduate can thus be said to be illiterate in his area of study. Conclusion Reading is one of the core skills that every growing child should have. Books indeed are for reading although just like in sifting wheat, some books are like chaff and thus should be avoided. Good books however, are in plenty and they contain precious gems of knowledge that can empower us. The saying that knowledge is power is a truism that many readers can confirm. Even the illiterate would attest to this fact in light of the countless roadblocks that they encounter in the contemporary world. Reading is not a tedious affair but rather an enjoyable one. As Birkets says, ‘reading because we control it, is adaptable to our needs and rhythms.’ Works Cited Birkets, S. (2006). The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. Faber & Faber: Winchester, MA. Kozol, J. (2010). Patterns For College Writing. Bedford: Boston, MA. MacFarquhar, L. (1997). Who Cares If Johnny Cant Read? : The value of books is overstated. Retrieved 17th June, 2010, from http://www.slate.com/id/3128/ Zinssner, W. (2010). Patterns For College Writing. Bedford: Boston, MA. Read More