I could not say exactly when I read my first book, but I still remember the fascination with the books in the library, their colorful and suggestive covers, and even if, when I opened them, I only saw meaningless signs, I was anxious to find out the treasures inside. I remember my mom’s stories that I listened with my soul, captivated by the realms in which they wore me and their amazing characters. Later, when I learned to read, I was curious to see if they were as my mother told me and if there were others she had forgotten to tell me.
„… the book is a promise, a joy, a journey through souls, thoughts and beauties.” Tudor Arghezi
Looking back, the taste for reading comes from the early childhood, with the guidance of the parents and later of the teenagers, starting from the simplest happenings, fairy tales and, as we grow, reaching more complicated intrigue, formed characters, but of what more engaging and more meaningful. So, slowly, we learn about the world around us, about life, about people and ourselves, because „there is no innate knowledge, because there is no tree that leaves the ground with leaves and fruits.” (Voltaire)
Reading develops our imagination and creativity, awakens new and diverse feelings, shows us various experiences, characters we sometimes identify with and relate to in spirit, shades of past lives, but which make us understand who we are from where we are draw. Moreover, by reading, we learn to think, acquire the courage to decide what and how we want to be, to evolve. „Man can not discover new oceans, as long as he does not have the courage to lose sight of his hair.” (Andre Gide).
But all of this is happening gradually, as our little mind develops. If at first we are only able to memorize or reproduce the content, later our teachings teach us how to understand it, how to interpret it, and how to extract from it the true teachings, how to form our beliefs and concepts. The duty of our school’s mentors is to develop our thinking, guide and channel our efforts, awaken our curiosity, so that we can experience the world of books and be able to choose our own areas of interest.
The teacher is the one that broadens our cultural horizon, one that can develop or enhance our appeal to the world of books, the one who teaches us to think by ourselves, as John Amos Comenius says: „To train young people properly does not consist in them you have a lot of words, phrases, expressions and opinions from different authors, but open the way for them to understand things. ”
Baltasar Gracian said: „Encourage your friends to be like a school and talk to them. Make a friend of yours a learner and unite through the use of the instruction with the pleasure of conversation.” And when I think about childhood and adolescence, I remember the long conversations I had with my colleagues or friends on the edge of a book, how we competed in evoking other works with typologies or similar themes, and as we struggled to find a new way through which we could, in turn, illustrate the same idea.
It is true, it is a completely new generation that does not blend in the trends of the 21st century generation. But if we think better, this century gives us even more opportunities to broaden our cultural horizons. Through audiobooks, young people today can listen to our childhood books, anywhere, anytime, without space and time constraints.
Movies that we can watch on television or cinema are, in most cases, screenings of classical or contemporary novels that can stir interest and curiosity to the original, more complete and complex work illustrated only partially in about two hours of film . Thus, our duty, as parents and as teachers, remains today to learn how to make use of technological progress and how to use it for the benefit of comprehensive education.
Another valuable lesson I received from my teachers is that the book has her ages. For each age there is the right book; are books whose charm we live only at certain ages, books whose value increases with time, as we grow, as a wine that gets better with every passing year.
Each time we read a book, its meanings get profound, because „a book is more than a verbal structure or a series of verbal structures, it is a dialogue established with the reader, the tone it imposes on the reader and is the changing or lasting image which he imposes on his memory. „(Jorge Luis Borges)
The teacher has the difficult task of turning the reader to the book using various methods, as active, more engaging and more attractive. Our duty remains to promote direct solutions to stimulate reading, and through this project we try to optimize our educational approach by exchanging ideas, methods, activities, teaching materials to support the development of the student’s motivational sphere.
References:
• BOUCHOT, Henri. Le livre. L’illustration – la reliure. Étude historique sommaire. Paris: Edition Maison Quantin, [1886]. 320 p.: Fig., Il. II 5.617
• GAGEA, Adriana; POPESCU, Virgil. Contributions to the History of Romanian Culture. Book and Library: Bibliography Dan Simionescu. Bucharest: s .n., 1990. 48 p. III 29.779
• SELEJAN, Ana. Rare and precious book: Catalog. Vol. 2: Sec. XVIII. Sibiu: The „Astra” Library, 1992. 242 pp. II 65.339 (2)