“You can’t make me like it,” the boy despaired with a grimace to his mother. “There’s no book in
this place that could make me want to
read. I will get through it if you tell me to,
but I can’t possibly enjoy it.” His yearning mama asked me to find a treasure for
him to at least try.
A few days later, she excitedly phoned
me. “Remember the King Arthur book
which you gave to Joey? 1 Turns out, the
last page is missing, and he is beside himself to know how the story ends! Then
it hit him: he cared what happened. He
wanted to read!” Another notch on the
gun barrel of living books!
That was 20 years ago, and while it is
more challenging to convince today’s
children that the written word has value
(that the written word isn’t merely a fos-
silized penchant of geriatric parents),
I have learned in those two decades of
running a library that the question “How
can I graduate a well-read son or daugh-
ter?” can be answered by doing the first
work of helping our children enjoy what
they are reading.
Only secondly, I believe, can we debate, for example, which Charles Dickens classics should be read to appreciate his clever takedown of society’s
cruelty-mongers. So, if “literature class”
is a chore for student and parent, you
may have missed the Other Classics, as
I like to call them: the lesser-known but
thrilling books that begin a reading career. They do the crucial first work: happily convincing our children that reading
is thrilling in a very deep way!
Shhhh. We may want to keep quiet this
little parental secret about the power of
happy discoveries for our kids. Of course,
Blaise Pascal tipped us off centuries ago:
“All men seek happiness. This is
without exception. Whatever differ-
ent means they employ, they all tend
to this end. The cause of some going
to war, and of others avoiding it, is
the same desire in both . . . The will
never takes the least step but to this
object. This is the motive of every
action of every man . . .” 2
So, it’s simple! 3 Kids want to read when
they see it is a source of happiness! Of
course, as Charlotte Mason said so well,
the truly educated child has learned
that real happiness—the godly kind that
lasts eternally—comes not when he asks
“What do I want?” but rather, “What
do I need?” So, we purposefully train
our children to seek more than the false
fizz of the flickering gizmo; we carefully
strengthen their bodily self-control so
they can calm themselves to open minds
and hearts at reading time, and we keep
them connected to the authentic life
(much inspired by adventurous reading)
that makes mindless entertainment pale
in comparison.
www.TheOldSchoolhouse.com
The Homeschool Bookshelf
The Other Classics
by Michelle Miller
If “literature class” is a chore for student and parent, you
may have missed the Other Classics . . . the lesser-known
but thrilling books that begin a reading career.
