Why My 5-Year-Old Son Can Read #InternationalLiteracyDay

by Kim D.

Yes, my son is already reading short sentences and first reader books even though he is only five. There is no magical secret to helping a child on the road to literacy. It's simple - if parents read to their children on a daily basis, they instill a love for books. This is a priceless gift I can give my son, and scattered throughout this blog post are a few of the favorites we have read countless times.

When I was pregnant, my baby shower requests included tons of books so the very first week of cuddling could include reading stories to my little one. This tradition I began on week one with my son still continues five years later. The fun part is that now he can participate in our bed-time story ritual. 

I am convinced that if a child loves reading, he or she can excel in most any academic field of choice. When are children are very young, we have our hopes for what they will become. We dream of future doctors, engineers, teachers, artists, and, perhaps, politicians. I cannot imagine the parent who buys into the hype that his or her child's is destined to a life on welfare, satisfied with little opportunity for upward mobility.

In fact, I came across an article several months ago which shocked me to the core yet affirmed my belief in the power of sharing the love of reading with my child. The article is titled "Is having a loving family an unfair advantage." At the center of discussion are two philosophers - Adam Swift and Harry Brighouse - who have long sought to explain why some do well in the world while others fall by the wayside. 

Swift and Brighouse, after studying the issue of equality and opportunity, discovered that children who come from loving homes have a better advantage in life, especially those who were read bedtime stories. Now here comes the shocking part - these so-called philosophers claim good parents are to blame for creating inequality in the world.

‘I had done some work on social mobility and the evidence is overwhelmingly that the reason why children born to different families have very different chances in life is because of what happens in those families.’   Once he got thinking, Swift could see that the issue stretches well beyond the fact that some families can afford private schooling, nannies, tutors, and houses in good suburbs. Functional family interactions—from going to the cricket to reading bedtime stories—form a largely unseen but palpable fault line between families. The consequence is a gap in social mobility and equality that can last for generations.

Let's not make a call for all parents to be interactive with children and instill healthy habits - like reading. That would be too easy. Let's denounce the parents trying to set the good example and make them the scapegoat who is creating the "unequal" children of the world who have not had the advantage of a good parent. That's the ultimate in liberal logic, one that has pervaded the world's consciousness and done a screw job on the minds of millions.

Things are becoming ever more Orwellian with each day that passes. According to Swift and Brighouse one solution is simple - abolish the family, although they admit that its viability is rather poor:

‘One way philosophers might think about solving the social justice problem would be by simply abolishing the family. If the family is this source of unfairness in society then it looks plausible to think that if we abolished the family there would be a more level playing field.’  

Instead of looking how to level the playing field, it would be refreshing for philosophers to promote individual responsibility. While it's true that not all parents are able to express healthy love for their children and create a functional atmosphere which encourages literacy, the goal should be to help them do so, not lament that good parenting is creating an unequal society.  

Calling for an international literacy day is a positive step in raising awareness, but until all parents recognize that literacy begins in the home, we should expect that some children will have a better chance in this world than others. Big Brother never has nor ever should be peeking in the bedroom to denounce our bedtime reading, but if he ever does, let's hope my kiddo is deep into Animal Farm or 1984.