Book Owners Have Smarter Kids
In her recent Salon.com article, Laura Miller discusses several studies that suggest just owning books has a tremendous effect on a child’s education. One recent study found that having as few as 25 books in the house meant two extra years of schooling, as compared to children growing up in homes devoid of books. She cites another study that found giving twelve books of their own choosing to low-income children helped to maintain their academic skills over the summer, preventing them from being surpassed academically by their higher-income peers. It seems as simple as keeping more books in the house, but Miller points out how difficult this can be for parents who are not familiar with bookstores:
“I’ve never even set foot in a gun shop, but it’s equally hard for me to imagine venturing into one. The people who work and shop in such stores may not mean to be unwelcoming, but the same thing that makes these places so inviting to the initiated — the innate clubbishness of human nature — can scare away novices. As homey as a bookstore or local library branch might feel to you or me, they can make other people feel insecure, out-of-place and clueless.”
Keep reading here.
