I’m not a book junkie – I don’t belong to a book club and I never read a book twice unless I’m reading to my toddler. I’m also not a teenager so the appeal of spending endless hours online making virtual friends and scouring video sites is lost on me.
That said, I do place tremendous value on developing a love of reading at an early age. In my opinion, reading is the single most important skill you can teach your child, and it’s fundamental to their future academic and career success. But reading isn’t necessarily one-size-fits-all, and young readers who aren’t entertained by the antics of Huckleberry Finn need to be fed content the way they like to receive it – online. Literacy is at a crossroads.
The Internet alone won’t suffice to build reading comprehension skills and books alone may not be enough to engage young readers. We as parents and educators need to adapt and give our children a combination of reading options – after all, they’ll soon be the policy makers determining reading standards in the years to come.
