Already inundated with demanding schoolwork, curricular activities, and various commitments, students today have little time for leisurely reading. Yes, the 21st century demands, and heralds progress: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the four pillars of modernity, have slowly shown novels and storybooks the back door to make room for urgent practicalities. Yet, amidst the stream of facts, numbers, and data, there is unmistakable virtue – and happiness – that can be found in reading fiction.
Novels, regardless of genre, place us in the shoes of the characters. We utilize our imagination to create images of them and interact. And for children, reading fiction at an early age, when they are most malleable, brings about lasting benefits. Contrary to being passive – as in staring at smartphone screens and consuming information one-way – they are coaxed to actively ‘fill in the gaps’ and fabricate the characters in their minds. In fact, a study conducted by Emory University regarding reading fiction demonstrated that the activity changed brain connectivity and actually improves brain function[1]. We see that this
is quite different from the crystalized knowledge they learn from school textbooks.
What’s remarkable is that reading fiction makes us more emphatic persons. They learn. By figuratively ‘interacting’ with the books characters, children can relate with the emotions felt by the characters. Each of them has their own traits, and children can subtly distinguish one from the other. This empathic quality has led a team of scientists to measure how accurately a person can determine what the another is feeling[2], and the results demonstrate that after reading literary fiction, participants were recorded to have more emotional sensitivity and awareness.
In an age where empathy and feelings toward one another is dwindling[3] and when competition is ever more fierce, perhaps it would be mutually beneficial for students to be able to relate with their peers better. We now know that reading encourages them to feel for one another. After all, empathy is a critical human trait that has helped our species survive against what nature has thrown at us for that past several million years.
Reading fiction is a fun activity, and it helps improve children’s mastery of the language. There are plenty instances in fiction where certain words – virtually inapplicable outside a fictional context – are used. So let’s help children pick up their J.K. Rowlings, Lewis Carrolls, and Dickenses and start reading fiction again!
Source [1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201401/reading-fiction-improves-brain-connectivity-and-function ; [2] http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6156/377.abstract ; [3] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-me-care/
Editor: Oliver Nicholas Phoa
