So says the teen, the tween, the student without a love of the language. So how do you persuuade the disconsolate child that reading is better than the fifteen hours of Simpsons reruns or an x box? The most useful thing a student can do is read, read and read some more. Frankly it's the most important thing any of us can do.
Language is power, language is magic. The right words in the right order at the right time can stop wars, bring grown men to tears or make people fall in love. To avoid this is to deny ourselves the opportunity to control our very existence.
Language and books give us context. How can the businessmen with all the right ideas convince the undecided? By common ground, by common culture and by a common interest in the world around them that comes straight from works of literature, history, philosophy.
Get them hooked. If you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, crawl. If you can't crawl you get someone to help you. Start with the thing they will read. Thin books, lurid covers, trash fiction and commando comics. Graphic novels or even just comics. The connections and curiosity that even a stroll through a written page can promote will be well worth the trouble of putting it in front of them.
Read about sports, fashion, mayhem and carnage; animals, heroes and villains. Start with a Haiku and work up.
As Bilbo found, every unexpected journey starts with a first step.
http://howtoteachandlearn.blogspot.com/
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