Page 6 - VIS - Newsletter
P. 6
October/2023
LETTER FROM OUR ADVISOR
The benefits to reading are plenty, but I would
like to focus on one - reading to inspire creativity
and independent thinking. Tales based on
fantasies are of great support to children in
negating fear. Added to this, stories which contain
imagination and magic usually pack a good
number of moral values which help in building
character. Parents are advised very often by
educators to encourage their children to read
these stories full of fantasy.
The school Library plays an important role in
inculcating this habit in children. It is done
through the issuing of books, insisting on the
students writing reviews after reading books,
V. SRINIVASAN - ADVISOR, VIS.
displaying reviews on panels for the others to
read and feel inspired, presenting information on
Reading habits in both teachers and students are
books for general reading, and so on. Students
slowly diminishing. Some of you may object to this
should feel privileged to own a book as well as
by saying that you have been reading book after
share it with their peers. To complement the work
book and that the library does not have enough
done at the school level, it is encouraged that
books for reading. This group, I am sure, is not a
when parents and teachers come across good
majority in any community you consider.
books, the details be shared with the School
Recreational reading is approached in many Librarian who will be able to provide the same for
ways across the globe. Recently I was watching a the benefit of all. VIS is committed to providing
TV programme on a regional channel in which an excellent opportunities to our young readers as
eminent language professor was lamenting about well as the adults, in order to strengthen this
the lack of interest shown by people of all ages in activity. The purpose of education is not to
this activity. He then listed a few very interesting neglect fantasies but to make them useful in the
practices in various countries: in Japan, books for overall learning process.
all levels are stacked under the table in
I would like to now pose some questions as food
restaurants so that customers read as they wait
for thought: What is the role of educators in this
for their food to arrive; in Sweden, lamp posts at
fantastical world? How are we going to create the
the road junctions are provided with boxes, in
balance in the thought processes of young
which the citizens leave books after they
learners towards understanding the phenomenon
complete reading it (instead of throwing them
of “fantasy”? Now, this is a new challenge!
away); in South Africa, schools ask for donations
in the form of books, not money.
