Should Kids Read 20 Minutes a Day?

Education sure has changed since I was a kid! When I look back in my deep memories of what it was like in elementary school, I mostly remember fun, creativity, laughter, play and a fascination and wonder of learning. But interwoven within all that was a strong and long lasting education. An education that has served me well throughout my life. But when I look at my kids in school, and look at how they feel about it, I don’t see or hear nearly a fraction of that sentiment. It seems they are working harder than we as parents ever had to, while the fun, creativity, fascination and wonder of learning is gone.

I can remember taking my blanket from my cubbie at nap and storytime in kindergarten. I remember our teacher coming to class crying in second grade, explaining to us that the Challenger shuttle had exploded. I remember talent shows, and fun interactive assemblies. We took field trips to places I will never forget! I had the chance to take music education, and foreign language. And I remember what felt like hours of our teachers reading the great childrens classics to our class. Heck, I almost miss those days!

My children come home from school and the only interesting daily occurrence reports we get consist of, “We did work. We ate lunch. We did more work. Then we came home”. It is a mere handful of times per school year that I hear about an extra curricular activity, or even just some good old fashioned fun happening at school. It really makes me feel as though they aren’t being engaged in a broad and creative structure of learning. They see school as work, work, work, broken up by brief periods of eat and play.

Homework is outrageous! My youngest in first grade comes home with math and writing and a good solid hour of reading homework that his teacher has setup to require complete parental involvement. Don’t get me wrong, parental involvement in such things is vital to a successful student, but it’s the workload that I find imposing. My oldest sons workload isn’t much different, though as a fourth grader his assignments are relatively independant study. But for a few years now, homework has mandated a minimum of 20 minutes of reading per day…thus I reach my overall argument of this post.

Is requiring children to read a minimum amount per day actually beneficial to them? Does it truly enhance and build their skill sets, and perhaps more importantly, does it negatively affect their outlook on the subject?

To answer question one, I feel that, yes, reading everyday does have a very powerful effect on a childs comprehension, vocabulary, grammatical and creative thinking skills. The accumulation of knowledge and understanding is significantly enhanced by reading. I don’t really think there could be a doubt. I found this page rather poignant, where it shows the mathematics of how much time a student who does read for 20mins. per day actually spends. It is the equivalent of 3600 minutes a year, or 10 full days. That has to have a positive effect don’t you think? Personally, I love to read, and have and always will strongly encourage my children to read also.

Question two, about whether the 20min. reading requirement has a negative effect on a childs outlook on the subject, is where I stray from the fold. Yes, I actually do feel that it has a negative effect on their outlook on reading. I have gained this feeling from the continual struggle and debate with my son, everyday, over his required reading. He doesn’t want to do it, simple enough! Not because he’s a slacker or lower down on the brain power totem pole, or because he could have ADHD (he doesn’t by the way) but because he’s a kid! He doesn’t wanna be stuck inside and forced to sit quietly and work, he’s just been doing that all day in school. He wants to run and yell and play and do all those wonderfully obnoxious kid things that drive us parents nutty. He’ll do his homework assignments, but sit and read? 20 minutes may as well be 20 hours.

Now the “he’s just a kid!” mantra doesn’t actually cover the psychology thats at play here. I posit that though my son in reality enjoys reading and is quite advanced at it in his age group, his actual enjoyment of it is destroyed once it has become a requirement. When he is allowed to make the conscious choice to read, he is engaged and excited, and fully benefiting from the process. As a requirement, the goal is to simply get through it, eyeballing the clock every few minutes and barely engaging in the story.

This 20mins. a day was not a requirement when I was in school. We had books that were read as an entire class over a set period of time, which followed complimentary assignments. We did have to do the occasional book report on a book we read on our own time. And you know what, not to brag but my reading skills and academics have always been top notch, as I think is the case with many in our generation. But that’s not the way it is for my kids. No books come home, no book reports. Just read 20mins. a day on top of a work filled school day, and homework filled after school.

To sum up my opinion on this: I feel that by requiring reading like this, it is effectively lessening and in some cases destroying a childs potential love of reading. They see a book and think work, boring, a burden on their time, instead of wonder and imagination of the great escapism that book could be. It’s sad really. Especially because these educators idea is in the right place. But I feel the pressure to create academic results has clouded their ability and power to teach children what’s really important.

Tagged as: Children, Education, Homework, Learning, Reading