George Raymond Richard Martin, who is an American novelist and short story teller, has rightly said that: “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”
This quote certainly points out the importance of reading books in the development of one’s mental growth.
Furthermore, research reveals that those who are used to reading books as a pastime are less likely to suffer from, anxiety, depression and loneliness – much less than those who are not used to reading. Reading has countless benefits. Most importantly, it reduces the probability of diseases such as Alzheimer’s later in life.
Unfortunately, our youth has avoided the reading habits from the last many years. This has caused by a rise in the smartphones and the excessive use of social media, which are now a days the best priorities of today’s youth.
Other than the excessive use of social media, another reason why our youth is getting away from reading books is that in today’s competitive environment, parents encourage – rather demand their children to achieve higher grades in their exams. The focus is on grades not on the knowledge required.
Additionally, our teachers have also played a negative role in the declining culture of reading books. Majority of the teachers merely rely on text books & children are burdened with useless assignments etc.this leaves a very negative effect on children. While there are very few teachers who try their best to suggest their students relevant and researched based books.
In short, I would like to request from the entire teacher’s community to play a positive role in enhancing the reading habits among the children so that they have the ability to distribute constructively to a debate of any sort.
