Opus 2019-240: Baby Talk: Determining the Nature of the Falling Nut

Children are born.  Adults are made.

It may be that some children automatically become readers.  That has not been the case with our granddaughter.  Of course she is still a toddler but personalities develop early.  She would rather run around the couch than sit with a book.

My daughter is working on that and is planting the seeds.  She lets the toddler run but there are times when she restrains the baby until she calms down enough to look at the book being read.  It isn’t easy.  It takes time.  It reflects a commitment to a goal.  In time the habit is established and we see an increase in times when the child will pick up a book and look through it.  Will she become a reader?  I don’t know.  Some people just don’t like to read.  They would rather go out and turn a tree into a cabinet than read a book about trees.  Still, the seeds need to be planted to keep the options open.

Why do children turn out the way they do?  We often talk of heredity and environment.  What the modern culture ignores is free will, choices.  It goes beyond the choices of the child.  Parents make choices in how they spend their time.  Often the key question is, excuse the word, selfish or sacrifice.  It is much easier to plop the kid in front of an electronic device so you can do your nails than to engage them and help them to grow.

Even the best, progressive day care cannot make up for the attention of a mother.  We always laugh when some official child education organization publishes something as a great tool of learning and it is something that mothers have been doing for centuries.  Grandmothers could have written the books but they don’t have Ph.D. behind their name or government funding.

I realize it is easy to judge and my point is not to condemn single parents who are doing the best they can but they need to realize that when they have a choice it will have consequences.  We were surrounded by mothers and fathers making those kinds of sacrifices and the results we see are gratifying. 

homo unius libri