Time Well Spent

Te Ao Hou, December 1962, Page 57

Time Well Spent Reading takes time. I know that it is a temptation to get Sonny to go out and chop some more wood, or his sister to go and give the baby its bottle. These jobs are important; children should help in the house. But reading is important too, and I don't think it will do any harm if, after tea, you turn off the radio for half an hour or so and say, ‘Sit down and read a book’. They will be getting something from it, and so will you. Well, there's my case in favour of reading. As a school teacher I think that learning to read is important, but not half as important as what comes from reading. Reading is a little like eating. You have to vary things a bit—fish and chips is all right now and then, but not every day of the week. A comic may do to fill in half an hour, but comics shouldn't be the only things that your boy or girl reads; they don't let them learn nearly enough about the things they need to know, things reading can tell them. The school's part was to start your children off in reading; your part is to see that they get the food their minds should have, and don't have to go hungry.