‘If you want to hide something from an African put it in a book’, or so i read somewhere. We could all dispute this saying from a lot of angles and in a lot of ways, but lets face it, how many of us have a reading culture out of the norm, out of our office manuals and reports, out of our school text, out of what is on the time table?
I would not blame this on any of us, maybe i would blame this on the lack of time to do it. LARGELY, i would blame this on the lack of a READING CULTURE in us. A reading culture would make us understand the importance of reading and hence allow us to make some time to pick a random book and actually have a read at it.
Not everything valuable can be taught in school. This is one thing that I have come to learn the hard way but it is very true. Monday to friday in our schools, 6.30am to 6.30pm, all evening and weekends is school and homework time respectively. Our children barely have the time, space or place to see the world out of the classroom walls as locked in their brains. This has led to a lot of closed thoughts and reasons.
Watching a local TV show, Churchill Live, there is a section called the Toto's corner where young pupils are asked random general questions and I was amazed when one was asked "who is Mwai Kibaki", and his response "the president of USA". You might be laughing, i know, but this is the sad reality! Am sure if you asked this same child, the scientific name of an edible mushroom, they would know! (do you?)
The other day, a great supporter of the books2shools campaign, @Rafiki58 (twitter) Sue Hooper Lawri, wrote a very touching post, "There is a far worse famine..." If we examine the situation carefully, this is very true. We are starving and soon enough, might meet our death if the "food" is not provided!
Please let us support this initiative through idea sharing by Sharing your stories, pledge a donation (this can be done both by donating books or giving cash donations that will go towards buying books) or help us identify potential locations for setting up the libraries by Contacting us.
Together let us cultivate a reading culture in our children. Remember, it all lies in the details :)
I would not blame this on any of us, maybe i would blame this on the lack of time to do it. LARGELY, i would blame this on the lack of a READING CULTURE in us. A reading culture would make us understand the importance of reading and hence allow us to make some time to pick a random book and actually have a read at it.
Not everything valuable can be taught in school. This is one thing that I have come to learn the hard way but it is very true. Monday to friday in our schools, 6.30am to 6.30pm, all evening and weekends is school and homework time respectively. Our children barely have the time, space or place to see the world out of the classroom walls as locked in their brains. This has led to a lot of closed thoughts and reasons.
Watching a local TV show, Churchill Live, there is a section called the Toto's corner where young pupils are asked random general questions and I was amazed when one was asked "who is Mwai Kibaki", and his response "the president of USA". You might be laughing, i know, but this is the sad reality! Am sure if you asked this same child, the scientific name of an edible mushroom, they would know! (do you?)
The other day, a great supporter of the books2shools campaign, @Rafiki58 (twitter) Sue Hooper Lawri, wrote a very touching post, "There is a far worse famine..." If we examine the situation carefully, this is very true. We are starving and soon enough, might meet our death if the "food" is not provided!
Please let us support this initiative through idea sharing by Sharing your stories, pledge a donation (this can be done both by donating books or giving cash donations that will go towards buying books) or help us identify potential locations for setting up the libraries by Contacting us.
Together let us cultivate a reading culture in our children. Remember, it all lies in the details :)
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