Q: Our 10-year-old son is a voracious reader, but I wish he would read something other than science fiction or fantasy novels. I think we should monitor his reading to make sure he reads something more realistic and positive. What do you think?
A: It’s terrific that your son is reading as much as he is. A major concern of many educators is that fewer kids are reading these days than were doing so in the past.
In a survey in 2020, researchers found that about 40 percent of kids around nine years old agreed that they read for fun and pleasure. In 1953, 53 percent of nine-year-old kids said the same.
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The 2020 figures suggest that about 13 percent fewer children were reading than did so a mere 10-plus years ago.
With the rise in electronics, my guess is that a similar survey would find even fewer kids reading today. This is scary. I don’t think you should do anything to discourage your son’s reading. Encourage him.
The merits of reading are locked up in empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand another’s person’s thoughts and feelings from their point of view rather than from your own.
It is the most powerful social skill a person can have for building healthy and supportive interpersonal relationships. The relationship between reading and empathy is simple. Children who read for fun and pleasure have higher rates of empathy than do those children who do not read.
Kids, in fact all people, reinforce their drives to empathy from reading in three ways.
The first is dialectic, that which a person or a child is told through the story line what another person is feeling or thinking. This is a description of what the story hero is thinking or feeling. It might even be like a graphic description of the 10 commandments for interpersonal well-being.
The second path to empathy is drawn from narrative transportation. That is a big word used to describe the process during which a reader identifies with the emotional or intellectual state of the characters about whom he is reading. Reading about those characteristics and identifying with them validates the reader’s emotional outlook and gives their insight into other people. It takes the reader out of the dark chasms of their own mind and into the wells of various fictional heroes.
The third route to empathy is drawn from the various interpersonal predicaments outlined in the story line of the novel. Stories have plots, situations, conflicting personalities and intrigue. How could you help but learn something from them?
Of course, for reading to work its magic on empathy, the story needs to be more than a flash -in-the-pan short story. It needs a little complexity, intrigue and volume. And maybe some of that intrigue should be shared on occasion.
Rather than discouraging your son from reading whatever he wants through some kind of parental censorship, you might take a few moments and let him share with you that which has sparked his interest.
After all, empathy works for your social success, too.
Jacklin Andrews is a family counsellor from Saskatchewan. Contact: jandrews@producer.com.
