Books at Bedtime: learning across generations
In a recent post, Janet talked about Mr George Baker, in which a child goes to school with someone from an older generation who, even if it isn’t articulated in the book, is courageously taking the plunge and overcoming the stigma attached to not knowing how to read and write. In the process he becomes an icon not just for other adults but for the children: Aline commented that her daughter was very struck by the notion of older people going to school when she had Jeremiah Learns to Read read to her.
When children see the adults in their lives reading, they are more likely to pick up a book for themselves. When adults and children learn together, the rewards can go far beyond the actual learning.
In Grandfather Counts by Andrea Cheng, illustrated by Ange Zhang (Lee & Low, 2000), which I included in my recent Personal View for our Literacy-themed update of PaperTigers, Helen’s grandfather comes to live with them in the US from China. Everyone has to adapt and language difficulties have to be overcome. Gong Gong (Grandfather) is clearly horrified that his grandchildren don’t speak Chinese and Helen is resentful that she has had to move out of her bedroom with its view of the train tracks at the back of the house. One evening Gong Gong joins Helen as she sits waiting for the trains to pass by. He counts each carriage/car as it goes by and soon they are sharing and learning how to count in each other’s language. Soon the ice is broken and that evening at supper, all three children start to show an interest in learning Chinese.
The story leaves young readers/listeners with a warm feeling that Helen and her Gong Gong will become close and each will continue to help the other to learn. This is by no means a preachy story but it does remind us of the difference it can make to a child’s desire to learn if they see adults around them who are doing the same thing. Helen and her brother and sister had tried attending Chinese Sunday School but had dropped out because the other children already knew much more than they did. However, because Gong Gong was willing to let Helen help him to learn English, she wanted to be able to communicate with him in his language too.
It’s a wonderful story, too, for children whose parents come from different cultures but who may be struggling with the notion of being bilingual; and because the story requires both the English and the Chinese to run alongside each other, it’s also a great way to introduce the beginnings of counting in Chinese to English speakers.
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
In the 90s there was a campaign that urged parents to read to their children for 20 minutes a day. Booksellers and others donated books for physicians working in low-income pediatric clinics to give to the parents of their patients, as a “prescription” to combat declining literacy. The idea was that if parents who normally didn’t read to their children because they themselves found reading difficult or unpleasant began to read simple and enticing books aloud, they might well begin to enjoy the process too.
This problem is not just a low-income phenomenon–Mem Fox tells about a well-off parent who when asked if he bought his daughter books responded, “Why? She can’t read!” And a friend of mine who complained that her pre-teen daughter never read for pleasure confessed that neither did she–when she had some leisure time, she picked up her game-boy!
It’s almost as simple as if parents read, so do their children, if they don’t, their kids won’t either.
August 24th, 2008 at 5:11 am
Absolutely! I suppose it’s also important to reassure parents that they don’t have to be reading “high-brow” literature in order to trail blaze: picking up a newspaper or magazine can be just as effective. What you say, Janet, resonates with the UK’s current RaW project, which includes family-oriented literacy projects and is promoted as much through libraries as on line. And initiatives like FRED (Fathers Reading Every Day) help to draw dads in too. I think Edward Gonzales‘ posters in this month’s gallery are a wonderful visual stimulus to family reading all the time and everywhere!
May 6th, 2011 at 6:23 am
[...] “Many of my books have to do with the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren (Grandfather Counts, Goldfish and Chrysanthemums, Shanghai Messenger, Only One Year, The Key Collection). Most of these [...]