Over your shoulder, please don’t mind me.
If my eyes have fallen onto your magazine.
Oh, I’ve been watching and wondering.
Why your face is changing with every line you read.
10,000 Maniacs, Cherry Tree
Sharing a quiet moment at the kitchen table, Ryan examined the cap off a beer bottle I had just opened. Rotating it in his little hand, he interpreted the icons underneath the cap, “Twitter, Facebook…Dad–what’s the one with the camera?” Unaware of how much advertising Stone Brewing placed under the bottom of bottle caps, I informed him that the camera in question was representing Instagram.
Beyond decoding the ubiquitous social media logos, both boys are now more aware of the world around them–thanks to the magic decoding afforded by reading. Chase now proudly decided every road sign he can view from the back seat. Ryan scans restaurant menus for dinner choices. in an information age, Ryan and Chase are now viable consumers of the written word. It’s as if they’ve discovered a mysterious kingdom that previously existed all around them and they now have the keys for entry. At any rate, the writing is on the wall: we’re in a house full of readers.
Literacy is power. At bedtime, it’s impossible to misread or skip a word without my accuracy checkers letting me know that I’ve strayed from the text on the page. No longer can Dad flip though the DIRECTV queue and selectively announce the programs he deems bearable. There’s a whole new level of transparency governing the selection of TV shows. Additionally, 8-year olds in the Matsumoto household accurately report on the current temperature in the house and then provide input on where the thermostat should be set.
It’s like we’re living with real people.
Back in my teaching days, our Director of Curriculum used to talk about the “10-book child” and the “1,000-book child” based on the number of books they had been exposed to prior to entering kindergarten. While I didn’t keep exact count, Jenni and I did our best to have an appropriate library around the boys starting at an early age. Of course, there was a time when the criteria for book selection put a higher priority on titles that could be chewed on, thrown against the wall, and/or could be laundered.
I don’t know if we have avid book readers, but I do know that retreating to one’s room and perusing I’ll Teach My Dog 100 Words or Lego Club Magazine is now a viable use of time. Lest we forget that my wife is an ardent public library supporter, the Matsumoto boys take regular excursions to check out new books. And it’s not just books at home. The richness of dinner table discussion has been enhanced by whatever the boys are reading a school. One night, Ryan came home and chronicled the childhood challenges Wilma Rudolph overcame in becoming one of the greatest American track stars. I’m not sure if her life story is in the Common Core Curriculum, but obviously gathering information from non-fiction biographies is.
One implication of all this reading is that Ryan and Chase are less dependent on us as their parents to interpret the word around them. This realization is liberating in some ways; unnerving in others. For example, Chase the strategist really enjoys board games and can now read most directions on his own. Ryan narrates the alien subtitles in Star Wars films. (As this is being written, we’re days away from The Force Awakens opening.) On the other hand, sometimes Ryan’s recommendations of websites I should check out sometimes sounds a bit too grown up.
Along with more reading there’s increased ability to navigate any number of glowing screens. It’s very easy to criticize the younger generation for their use of overuse of cell phones. The stereotypical teen is disengaged from the present with their nose buried in a smart phone. Bu think back to the advertising images of the 1950s family eating breakfast: Mom cooking eggs at the electric stove, kids eating cereal, Dad drinking coffee and reading the Tribune Is Dad’s face veiled behind the newspaper any different than the disengagement of today’s kids in their electronic devices? When I was a kid, I placed my cereal bowl on top of the sports section and studied baseball box scores. if the boys play with mom’s cell phone while they wait for dinner at Islands, is that any different? Whether it be a newspaper or YouTube, to me it’s a case of curious human beings finding the best diversion at any given time.
So we now find ourselves in the post-reading world Much like the post-walking world that we uncovered in the past and the post-driving world we expect to reach in the future, the boys’ new found abilities should be matched with a a corresponding amount of their parents “letting go.” Now that they can read, we need to allow to gather their own information and egad…think for themselves. As our parents did with us, Jenni and I will have to trust that we’ve installed our kids with the very best “factory settings” and that Ryan and Chase will choose wisely as they journey down the road of life. Well, at the very least they’ll be able to read the signs.
