Starting off another reader

by Rick Blechta

I suppose having been a teacher for a major portion of my life that it really is in my blood now.

To be clear, what I taught was instrumental music, aka (among teachers) as “crowd control with a beat,” but once a teacher, always a teacher.

Our granddaughter, the Unquenchable Lucy, is now at the age (5) where she has a firm grasp on “ABC’s” as she calls them. We have her overnight every Monday to give her parents a break and her big brother a chance to have them all to himself, because, and trust me on this, Lucy is a force of nature. She can easily take over any situation — in a good way, though. She is a delightful little person.

We have an alphabet puzzle that she loves. Besides putting in the letters, I’ve taken to asking her what words begin with the letter in question. She always starts with an automatic answer she’s obviously been taught in school (“A is for Apple”). Last week I began asking for other words that she could think of. It took very little coaxing to get other examples. (Teacher, right?) Yesterday I pushed her further. One or two words wouldn’t do. I asked for three, four, even five. She did not disappoint and it was gratifying to see her excitement about doing so well.

Next week, I’ll start her off on spelling some of those words. She’s ready after already mastering spelling her name and those of the rest of her family.

It’s been over 35 years since I last did this with our two sons, and at that time I didn’t pay attention to this exciting process as much as I should have, working six and seven days per week as I did. Now, being retired, I have all the time in the world to enjoy it. Brother Jackson is off and running and loves reading. Now his sister is just on the cusp.

I have always believed that the most important educational gift anyone can receive is learning how to read. Everything follows from that, doesn’t it? A whole world of possibilities opens up.

This has nothing to do with grooming future consumers of what we writers produce.

When someone learns how to read, they’ve been set free.