To a reader, doesn’t this question seem too obvious to answer? But when one is asked this question for fifteen years by hundreds… thousands… of adolescents, you want to have a really good answer ready. Granted, the question usually sounds more like, “Why do we have to read (title…)?” And is usually followed up by “How will this help me in my future life?” This question was raised in Mary Shelley’s gothic classic Frankenstein, too, when Clerval’s father initially restrains his son from furthering his education (in the humanities), stating “that learning was superfluous in the commerce of ordinary life.”
I have answered students’ questions in many ways, from the perspective of the escapist:
In a very real sense, people who have read good literature
have lived more than people who cannot or will not read.
It is not true that we have only one life to lead; if we can read,
we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.
~ S. I. Hayakawa ~
To the scientific:
“active brain function results in an increase in blood flow to the areas of the brain involved in carrying out the task, bringing with it oxygen and nutrients for the cells… In essence, the cells grow in the active areas of the brain. A great deal of research has shown that practicing cognitive skills encourages their preservation and development at all ages…the more education people had and the more their minds were occupied, the less they suffered from age-related decline. People who remain intellectually active and engage in hobbies reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by one third. All of these facts show that cognitive training — exercising your brain — protects your brain against decline in memory, concentration and information processing.”
~ Sharpbrains.com.
Granted, staving off Alzheimers is not the most persuasive of answers to adolescents, but I was trying to convince students any way possible because I knew, once I had read the first chapter of To Kill A Mockingbird or Great Expectations aloud, the questions would soon become superfluous… In some ways it is hard to quantify the benefits of reading because it is… simply… sublime!
