The Burlington Friends of the Library group sells bags, and recently started selling t-shirts, with the phrase “Open A Book, Open Your Mind.” That little phrase packs a lot of meaning.
Learning to read is the key that opens our minds to all aspects of future learning. As soon as we learn to read, we can spend a lifetime reading to learn. when we open a book, we get out of our own experiences and place in the world and visit new places, see the world through the eyes of others and find new ideas. Reading opens our minds as we grow, learn, and make changes throughout our lives.
You are reading: How books can open your mind
opening the mind to future learning
Even as the pandemic closed library buildings, all libraries in our area immediately began modifying their summer reading programs. summer reading is too important to cancel. It’s well established that summer reading programs help prevent summer slip, the loss of skills that results when kids stop reading over the summer. kids can lose 2-3 months of reading skills in a summer, and those effects can add up. By the time a child reaches middle school without reading in the summers, she will have lost the equivalent of two years of learning. at the ninth-grade level, up to two-thirds of a student’s achievement gap can be attributed to summer learning loss. Studies show that third graders who cannot read on grade level are four times less likely to graduate from high school than their peers. not having a high school diploma limits job opportunities and lifetime income. Summer landslide damage begins early and has far-reaching effects on a person’s adult life.
The good news is that all it takes is 2-3 hours of reading per week to avoid summer learning loss. By breaking it down even further, reading just 20 minutes a day can keep the skills needed to return to school ready to learn, rather than having to relearn lost skills. Thanks to community sponsors, the public library, even in these strange times, is able to offer virtual incentives and events to give families tools to encourage daily reading and learning this summer. In this way, children in our community build a solid foundation of reading skills to serve them throughout their lives.
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opening the mind to calm
a study from the university of sussex found that reading can also open the mind to a greater sense of calm. all you need is a book you enjoy and a few minutes to reduce your stress. Six minutes of reading a day can reduce stress by up to 68% by lowering your heart rate and relieving tension in your muscles. this study found that reading was more relaxing than drinking a cup of tea, taking a walk, or listening to music. I say why not combine a few of these and read over a cup of tea on your porch or listen to an audiobook while walking through the park to really add to the calming effects. In today’s world, we can use all the stress relief we can get.
With the pandemic focusing on staying healthy, it’s important to keep in mind that stress weakens our immune systems and increases the risk of developing heart disease and other physical illnesses. In fact, a Yale University School of Public Health study followed a group of people age 50 and older over a 12-year period and studied their reading habits. the researchers found that “reading books provided a 23-month survival advantage.” the more a person reads, the greater the advantage. the study reported that as little as 30 minutes of reading a day increases a person’s longevity compared to non-readers. a daily dose of reading may be just what we all need.
opening the mind to change
While reading can comfort us, it can also challenge us. As important as it is to read to relax, it is also important to read as a way to broaden our view of the world and understanding of others. That may mean reading nonfiction titles about current events, other people’s experiences, or about life in other places. By stepping out of our comfort zone and challenging ourselves to read to grow and learn, we open our minds to change.
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If a subject challenges you to expand your understanding of the world, the library is a great place to start. Your local library has a large nonfiction section, and you can obtain books from other libraries to meet your learning needs. Your library team also creates book and exhibit lists to help you find resources. For example, you can find an exhibit on race and racial equality in the library to help broaden your understanding of the current conversation about race in our nation by exploring current works and reading about the history of race and civil rights. If you’re looking for ways to talk about race with a child in your life, you can find a list of age-appropriate books on our website or by asking at the service desk. the youth staff has developed book lists to help children with various sensitive topics, such as divorce, death, or bullying.
Opening our minds to new ideas and worldviews doesn’t just happen through non-fiction works. Speaking of novelists, Lin Manuel-Miranda, the creator of the musical “Hamilton,” said, “Generating empathy and creating a world using only words is the closest thing we have to magic.” Author Neil Gaiman, in an interview with The Guardian, said, “A book is a little empathy machine.” he went on to say that a book “puts you inside someone else’s head. you see out of the world through someone else’s eyes. it’s very hard to hate people of a certain type when you’ve just read a book by one of those people.”
We can open our minds by searching and reading the works of authors with life experiences different from ours. your library staff can help you find new authors to explore. At the Burlington Library, the Beyond Book Club focuses on titles by diverse authors and stories from diverse cultures.
Reading a book is not a passive activity. Reading actively shapes our ability to learn, to cope with a stressful world, and to broaden our view of the world and make changes in our lives. “read a book, open your mind” reminds us of the essential role that reading plays in building a successful life and challenges us to continue learning and growing personally so that we can be a stronger community together.
See you at the library!
rhonda frevert is director of the burlington public library. her column appears in streams on the third Friday of every month.
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