If the love for reading is not cultivated and nurtured during childhood, a spiritual gap will be created in later years, and “give way to the ugly side of human nature,” says child psychologist, Mohammad Zare-Neyestanak.
Promoting reading among children and young adults is crucial at an early age to elicit their interest and should become an everyday task of parents.
The culture of reading is one of the most important issues in developing countries. “UNESCO studies demonstrate its importance in economic development,” ISNA quoted him as saying.
He described the issue as “multidimensional” and said it needs to be addressed on macro and micro levels. “At the macro level, we need a national strategy in reading and in publishing, establishing and equipping public libraries.” At the micro level, “we should consider the availability of appropriate and low price books.”
A reading culture forms and develops in the family, where the foundations of etiquette are laid first and later nurtured by schoolteachers.
He said in an era of information explosion and globalization, children “passively receive a huge volume of information; hence they will not grow independent mentally.” Little or no contact with nature and spending most of their time on video games, denies them the chance to be disciplined, organized and good managers.
Zare-Neyestanak said parents’ insistence on filling up children’s minds with information on one hand, and the Internet and virtual world on the other are factors limiting children and young adults’ contact with the real world.
“Those who are aware of the situation today of the younger generation know that books are the best protection for the youth against deviancy.” Social and personal well-being depends on the older generation’s responsibility towards the youth.
Knowledgeable parents and teachers have an accurate understanding of their duties and motivating children to read “is an indirect means to meet their spiritual needs.”
