I happened to pick up a poor, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed young person this morning. I say “poor” because I was the one who happened to pick her up, but I hope I didn’t scare her too much. She had been working in an “operations” role for just over a month, so I thought I’d poke my nose in on current happenings in the academic world. Turns out that getting our kids to read more on and around whatever particular subject they are enrolled in is happening more and more. More and more professors, it seems, are delivering lectures not just for the sake of “downloading” but to stimulate thinking on and about topics and themes. All predicated on the most important assumption that all students have done their required reading on what was being lectured on, and were not there to receive from the Oracle of Operations (for example), but to hear the thoughts of someone older and wiser on the subject, whatever it was that was being discussed. I actually felt encouraged and uplifted at the end of the short conversation when I dropped her off. I’d like to meet more passengers like that!

READ. Videos, prompting AI to cobble together an information paper or executive summary you can use are both great, but I still say that nothing beats plain, good, old-fashioned reading. And I mean reading from a book that is actually made of paper and bound properly. Ebooks are great, and I of course am building my infinitesimally sparse collection, but I am eagerly waiting when I can spend a goodly portion of my day just reading and chewing over whatever takes my fancy at the moment. Reading, and especially reading aloud, makes you slow down and turn over what you have just read at your leisure. That doesn’t mean taking your own sweet tardy time, but being able to dedicate bandwidth to absorbing, processing and assimilating. Don’t get me wrong, there. Videos, podcasts, AI-generated essays or information briefs are wonderful, and do continue to use them. What I am saying is that one ought to allocate some time to being able to sit down or stand or walk just reading a great book. Yes, you can hold a book and read it while walking. If men in days of yore were able to read (AND write!) while on horseback, you and I can definitely do so, but don’t read while you’re riding an iron horse!

The picture below shows some ebooks I am trying to finish. What books are you reading at the moment? Do you know someone who could use Read Aloud practice? Send them over!