Reading, at least as far as Jim Rohn is concerned, is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary. Yet far too many teens who aspire to the latter cannot be bothered with the former. Too bad, as a regular reading habit not only leads to literacy but also throws off tons of ancillary benefits from happiness to serenity to community engagement.
Despite the massive benefits from reading regularly, more than half of students average fewer than 15 minutes a day of reading. The true shame in this deficiency can be found in the implications of how much reading per day makes sense:
15 minutes seems to be the “magic number” at which students start seeing substantial positive gains in reading achievement; students who read just over a half-hour to an hour per day see the greatest gains of all.
Reading ability–like so many skills–stems from regularity. Study after study connects consistent reading habits to an abundance of enviable outcomes. At the same time, children who only read sporadically or not at all fall behind, as researchers Anne E. Cunningham and Keith E. Stanovich noted:
The term “Matthew effects” is taken from the Biblical passage that describes a rich-get-richer and poor-get-poorer phenomenon. Applying this concept to reading, we see that very early in the reading process poor readers, who experience greater difficulty in breaking the spelling-to-sound code, begin to be exposed to much less text than their more skilled peers (Allington, 1984; Biemiller, 1977-1978). Further exacerbating the problem is the fact that less-skilled readers often find themselves in materials that are too difficult for them (Allington, 1977, 1983, 1984; Gambrell,Wilson, & Gantt, 1981). The combination of deficient decoding skills, lack of practice, and difficult materials results in unrewarding early reading experiences that lead to less involvement in reading-related activities. Lack of exposure and practice on the part of the less-skilled reader delays the development of automaticity and speed at the word recognition level. Slow, capacity-draining word recognition processes require cognitive resources that should be allocated to comprehension.
When I was growing up, I was constantly reminded–on television, ironically–that reading is fundamental. We all want for ourselves and our children a broader and deeper understanding of the world. We all want advanced comprehension and enhanced speed. We want the intelligence, acumen, and insight to achieve our goals and dreams. Reading the right material the right way can unlock all those goals. All it takes is at least 15 minutes a day…