learning and pleasure

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I always wondered how reading could be regarded as a chore.  I suppose it just goes to show -- you can turn anything, even the most wonderful thing, into an ordeal.....  What if we just showed kids the pleasure that is available through reading, wouldn't they *want* to learn how to avail themselves of all that is theirs, if they can read?

I resonate with today's quote from A Word a Day:

It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought -- that is to be educated. - Edith Hamilton, educator and writer (1867-1963)

I derive so much enjoyment from learning more about things I already know something about, and from learning cool and interesting things I had never imagined are true.  The learning process is so much fun -- when we are learning something that we want to learn, and I guess that's the key....

Making people learn things they have no interest in, things which have no apparent relevance to anything they will want to do, or need to do.............  Surely that's a prescription for turning the whole process into an ordeal.

I surely don't know what to do to fix the way we do education in the USA, but I have to think that showing kids how much pleasure (and opportunity!) reading can offer them has to be a start.

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