‘If You Can Read This, Thank A Teacher…’

Michelle Obama and Nelson Mandela 

How true and appropriate this quotation by an anonymous teacher is… 

If you can read anything for that matter, thank your teacher because that is the person who taught you how to read!

I was fortunate to get an invitation from the Department of Arts & Culture to attend the launch of a Reading and Writing Club over the past weekend. Held at Umgababa on the south coast of Durban, I was mostly impressed by the interest shown by young school-going kids from the area, who came in numbers, to attend and show their support for this unique initiative. It also helped that world-renowned story-teller Gcina Mhlophe, was there to motivate the young and old about the value and importance of reading.

"Books are a legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the prosperity of those who are yet unborn." - Addison Joseph

Newspapers, magazines and books are a treasure that offer knowledge and serve as a great means of communication. I know a handful of people who came to this country from neighbouring African countries, not knowing one single word of English! What did they do? They bought newspapers, magazines and books and started ‘reading’! Today, they speak good English just like you and I. 

Ultimately, it rests with parents to also lead by example. If you have children, make sure that you buy at least one newspaper during the week and encourage your kids to read it after you are done. Buy fun books and give them to your kids as incentives for household chores done. Or, make time in the evenings to page-through magazines with your kids for them to get used to this reading culture and gain valuable insights and knowledge about the world around them. 

As Benjamin Franklin appropriately said, ‘an investment in knowledge pays the best interest.’ So let us start investing early in knowledge acquisition for our children. Let us encourage them to pick up a newspaper, magazine or a book…and read!

TRIVIA

• Barbara Cartland is the world's top-selling author with over 500 million copies sold.
• GENUINE’s journalist, Khulekani Magubane is a celebrated author who, by the time he was 22 years of age, had written 17 published books.
• Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham after his editor dared him to write a book using fewer than 50 different words.