Alethea F. Smith
Professor Lisa Wall
Composition I – English 1301
20 September, 2015
Read to Achieve I remember reading that nearly nine hundred million people in the world today can not read! Nine hundred million is a significant number for anything. Nine hundred million dollars will change your life, and the life of future generations. When it comes to nine hundred million people who can not read, that is an alarmingly high number of illiterate people. Imagine what kind of work they must do. What is their quality of life like? Are they able to have an auspicious future? Where is their self esteem level? We must get the word out that learning to read is worthwhile and beneficial to you. Reading can be enjoyable, it requires hard work and discipline, and it can help propel you to a successful future.
Reading can be enjoyable! If my memory serves me correctly, before I actually learned to read, I used to look at the illustrations on books and pretend to read out loud based on the pictures. Then I turned four! “The cuh-a-t ruh-ann-nuh”, I said, as I phonetically read my first book out loud to my mother. To my benefit, my mother knew the importance of learning to read, and reading well. I found great delight in hearing her praises as I read. “Excellent job Lee”, or “You are so smart” are just a couple of the phrases I loved hearing. I would volunteer to read out loud in grade school for the same reason; to hear the teacher tell me I did a great job. My mother enrolled my siblings and I in the summer reading program every year at the local library. We would check out books on a regular basis. If we read a certain number of books, we were eligible to win prizes! I would read as fast as I could so that I could get the next book. In elementary school, we could win personal pan pizza’s from Pizza Hut for reading. A few of my favorite books were: “Superfudge”, “Romana The Pest”, “Romana and Beezus”, all of the Amelia Bedelia books, and all of the Berenstain Bears books. I would select books that made me laugh. As you can see, praise and food were my motivations that made reading fun. Now as an adult, I enjoy reading suspense novels, as well as biographies or work based on a true story. Those genres of books captivate my attention and hold it hostage.
Reading also requires hard work and discipline. When I was learning to read, I remember I would ask my mother what a certain word was. Initially, she would grab the dictionary and show me how to look the particular word so that I could see how it was pronounced. Then after a while, she stopped showing me and would just tell me to look it up. I hated that. At the time I thought she was being mean and harsh. She knew the answer to my question and could just tell me. But by not telling me she was instilling discipline. In the story “Learning to Read”, Frederick Douglas said the following:
I succeeded in learning to read and write. In accomplishing this, I was compelled to resort to various stratagems. I had no regular teacher. My mistress, who had kindly commenced to instruct me, had in compliance with the advise and direction of her husband, not only ceased to instruct me, but set her face against my being instructed by anyone else. (635)
I’m not positive on who imparted discipline in Mr. Douglas, but it is evident that he had it. Again in the story “Learning to Read, Frederick Douglas says:
The plan which I adopted, and the one by which I was most successful, was that of making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street. As many of these as I could, I converted into teachers. With their kindly aid, obtained at different times and at different places, I finally succeeded in learning to read. (637)
Mr. Douglas’s willingness to pursue children as a teacher exemplified his determination and his hunger for learning to read. Reading can also help propel you to a successful future. In the story “Literacy Debate: Online, R U Reading”, Motako Rich says:
As teenagers scores on standard tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the internet are the enemy of reading-diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans, and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books. (55)
If students are not performing well on standardized, how are they going to be able to get into college? The SAT is a standardized test, and if you don’t score well on it, some universities will deny you as a student. Again, in the story “Literacy Debate: Online, R U Reading”, Motako Rich says:
Reading skills are also valued by employers. A 2006 survey by the Conference Board, which conducts research for business leaders, found that nearly ninety percent of employers rated reading comprehension as very important for workers with bachelor’s degrees. Department of Education statistics also show that those who score higher on reading test tend to earn higher incomes.
Earning higher incomes could begin with reading. Read your way into a successful lifestyle! In closing, I have discussed how reading can be enjoyable, that it requires hard work and discipline, and that It can help propel you to a successful future. I hope you are now motivated to read, read, READ.
Work Cited Page
Douglas, Fredrick. Learning to Read. New York: The Norton Mix, 2014. Print.
Rich, Motoko. Literacy Debate: Online, R U Reading. New York: The Norton Mix, 2014. Print.