Reading

March 2, 2011:Patricia gave her FHE lesson from an article of the 2011 ERA on Journal writing. I have written in journals before when I was a young teenager. Kept it up for a while and then life got very busy. Isn’t that what we all are saying now. There just is not enough time to write in a journal or many other things that we know to be important. But I’ve decided to try to write at least some either every day or most days that I am at school, since I am doing it on my computer. I will either be taking a topic that is on my mind at the time, or an experience from the past that I feel needs to be written down for my posterity.

 Today, I will be writing about reading. I am a librarian here at the St. Johns Middle School. I have been for the past 15 years. I love it and the opportunity that it gives me to read lots of books of various different people and experiences. My favorite genre is Realistic and Historical Fiction. I never have been much into fantasy. I guess that is because I’ve always been the more serious type of person. I do like “good” Humor. Most humor though that people in this day and age think is humor is mostly sarcasm. I absolutely hate sarcasm. That is mainly because it is always at the expense of some one else’s feelings. My feelings are very sensitive and I do not like how it feels to be hurt, so I do not like others to be hurt as well by someone’s ruthless sarcasm. I guess that is why I never could tell a joke very well. People have always taken me seriously so joking does not usually fit my character. My children have often told me to lighten up.

 It’s not that easy. Today I had a book turned in, “The Lost Boy”, by David Pelser. It is an autobiography of his life. I had a teacher of much respect tell me she did not think that I should allow 4^th graders to read this set of books. This bothered me. I do respect this person and love her very much. But I did not agree. Yes it is a book that is filled with many hard events in this person’s very young life. And maybe I am wrong but I feel that reading these events of anyone’s life can give understanding and compassion for others. The life that this young boy had was real. He actually went through some very horrible things. But he was a very strong individual and his experiences helped him to become strong and to actually be forgiving of his parents. The Parents were horrible and never actually gave him a chance but the boy was a better person then his parents. He gives strength to other children who read about him.

 I guess that is another reason I felt that the book was good for students to read is because it does give others strength to go through the experiences that they go through. There are many children of our own community and world that go through much abuse of all kinds. Why, it is a shame, but that is unfortunate for many people these days. We are in world of awful wickedness. If a book can help give someone strength or compassion or whatever that person needs, then it is worth it for them to be able to get it in such an easy form as reading. If I’m wrong, then I am wrong. I do not profess to be a scholar of all things. I do not think that protecting young people from knowing the horror that goes on and just letting them think that everything is so wonderful and very easy is so very healthy for them. Yes we do need to protect until they are at a maturity to be able to handle certain knowledge. But what that age is I don’t know. Every child is at a different maturity level depending on experiences of their own lives. Some children have to grow up so fast that if we wait till they are adults to introduce them to understanding of life experiences, then they have lost valuable time in which they could have felt strength, compassion, and understanding that could very well help them to become a better and more productive person themselves.

 Please take what I say as my opinion. This is not tried and tested; it is just how I feel. Because I have felt these very feelings from experiences I have had in my life. This is a prospective from a hard and painful life of my own. Maybe that is why I feel so strongly about this. The person who disagreed with me probable has not gone through the same things. So we all see things differently. Just different perspectives, I sometimes learn good role models from reading books. They help me to see my role in life better and how I should live. I definitely could see that I would not be a good parent if I should decide to act just as this set of parents acted with this child in “A Child Called It”. I can see what I do not want to do for sure. But also teachings at home and especially in my case from church teachings have given me a base for to grow from. From this base then I can see more clearly what I should and should not do according to what I read in books. So if children are not taught in home the values and important teachings that are so important to have as a base to grow from then maybe I am wrong. I don’t know. But there is a light of Christ in all children when they are born.  For some, maybe this is all the base that they have to grow from. Then maybe a good wholesome book is what they need to build their strong character with.

 I think that most children in Jr. High can know what book that they want to read and know as they read it if they want to continue to read it or take it back for another book. But one thing that I do know to be right is that we need to read! And then learn something from it. What ever it may be, what we should or should not do. There is one set of books that I do not, and absolutely abhor, and that is Horror books. I do not like horror wicked in all ways books. There is a difference in wicked horror and the horrible things that this parent did to their child. There were things to learn from in “A Child Called It”. But in wicked Horror books, it is just wicked entertainment and nothing to really learn from. That is why I love realistic Fiction or Historical Fiction, or for that matter, also A good biography. I love to learn something from what I read.