Reading, an irreplaceable habit

by Isabelle
Photos: Wildy

After observation, reading is the process par excellence to acquire knowledge. No modern teaching method excludes it, because it complements what it is told or observed.

Since the end of the 1990s, the Cuban State has devised several campaigns and strategies to encourage reading, a habit that beyond the simple showing-off to show the masses´ instruction level, should pay tribute to form values, fostering critical thinking.

Talking with a group of high school students, many claimed they turn to printed or digital texts "usually when relating to their studies". Thus, access to the University or other specialized teachings, such as the Polytechnic, "cause" the enjoyment of non-academic contents to pass to secondary plans, not to say tertiary.

Some say that is "obvious", because when they arrive at the aforementioned contexts is inevitable to spend very long periods to consult materials related to their profiles, and this can affect the taste and disposition towards different contents.

Professors and teachers, mainly from polytechnics, claimed that even this link do not provide the expected profits, since "we read and study mechanically looking for memorize a larger amount of data, avoiding reasoning and learning". The scores in tests on the quality of graduates evidence that.

So, what happens with the inclination towards all kinds of reading? What happens with the pleasure of reading? Where are the times when booksellers filled the most dissimilar places and were looked for constantly?

Will they be current prices the only guilty ones of handcuffing the craving for a good book? Perhaps new technologies have begun to replace so an ancient habit?

Microsoft's generation

According to a survey by the Center for Research on Cuban Youth, "although many Cubans read, in adolescence, books are used to be left". Data also reveal that the maximum emotional satisfaction through reading decreases among 14 and 17 years old, up to 21 and 23, then reappear into the third decade of life.

This inquiry - relative to the year - along with others by the same institution, has prompted the National Cuban Reading Program, in which the ministries of Education and Culture and other sectors collaborated.

The main objective: encouraging that practice among Cubans, essentially in the youngest ages, using the new audiovisual technologies as support and not as a stop to interest in books.

While institutions immersed in such efforts made use of new computing technologies, as what is new, many assumed them reluctantly, blaming them of some evil,such as stealing attention and preference of the young.

In this regard, UNESCO worldwide research corroborate that children and teenagers from 10-12 years old decrease considerably the volume of recreational reading and not necessarily by the computers´ effects. Many say books era is coming to its end, which is being replaced by multiple screens -computers, cellphones, Tv sets.

However, the new screens are not something derogatory, but what they shows, the intention with they are used, is what really matters.

Like most habits, reading is developed from home, it little matters if you use the digital support or choose the traditional paper. School, of course, should encourager, motivate desires, but before these must be instilled by the family which, as a leading, should make of reading a ludic recurrent daily action and not just a school commitment.

Then, the decrease of the habit of reading is not given only by supports or availability of time. It is part of a troubling syndrome, intellectual laziness.

Blocked papers

Books In Cuba have become more expensive. Unfortunately, the prices treble -and much more- its value. Due to known limitations of the publishing industry and the reduced availability to import volumes, strategies are directed towards the social use of books, enhancing the role of libraries and other community institutions.

The road is long. This is a time when images prevail, time of devotion by means of communication, that make simple some activities. That forces to think and elaborate again traditional tactics to encourage tastes and habits which were almost instinctive acts until yesterday.

A look at any library, and school uniforms, and academic texts, will vividly show reading is no longer a tasty and spontaneous action.

Of course there are achievements. However, there is still to be done to give back to reading its entertainment aura, away from school obligations.

They Say About Reading