To Turn Out the Lights or Keep Reading, THAT is the Question...

 *Statistics cited in this blog come from http://www.ksl.com/?nid=968&sid=15431484.

It’s 12:00 AM. You have to be up at 6:30 AM to get ready for school. You know it’s time to get some sleep. When that alarm beeps its annoying beeps, or chirps its annoying chirps, or sings its annoying song, you will regret this. You play the game in your head. “Okay, if I get to sleep at 12:30AM, that’s still 6 hours of sleep and I can manage.

12:30 comes and goes. 1:00AM. 1:30 AM. You keep playing the “If I fall asleep at _______, I'll get _____ much sleep” game. Finally, you realize it’s a must. You have to get some sleep.

You finally put the book down. 2:00 AM. 4 ½ hours of sleep.
And it’ll probably happen again tomorrow night.

This is what a good book does to us. It causes us to throw out all logic that is built into our very nature in order to help us stay healthy, to stay alert, to stay with it enough to be a fully functioning human being the next day. And a good book can destroy this very logic at its core!

And it’s one of the best things ever!

Of course we don’t want to condone not getting enough sleep. Sleep is one of the most important actions we take as human beings. Without it, as mentioned, logic goes out the window. Our ability to focus declines, our irritability shoots off the charts, and we generally don’t function well when lack of sleep becomes an issue in our lives. There is even a story about a hot-air balloonist who was attempting to set a world record for a hot-air balloon flight. The journey was a days-long journey, and while attempting to set the record, he didn’t sleep much. At one point, the balloonist became so extremely tired that he had to get some sleep. During his sleep, the balloon descended to an unsafe level, which set off alarms in the balloon. Due to the lack of sleep and what this had done to his reasoning and logic, the man heard the alarms and in a frantic, sleepy, exhausted state, his first reaction was to “get away from the alarms”. In doing so, he nearly climbed OUT OF THE BALLOON in his attempt to get away. Thankfully, he stopped himself with one leg dangling from the balloon, realizing at the last second that this was not what should be happening!

I bet he read stories about hot air balloons growing up.

Reading is one of the most important life skills someone can hone. Not just for tests. Not just for job skills. But just because it increases the mind’s ability. It takes our capabilities to new levels. A research study conducted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development found that “Reading is the single most important skill necessary for a happy, productive, successful life.”

Think of that? The single most important skill for a happy life is reading.

Yet 10 million children struggle with this, and of those 10 million, 10 to 15 percent will drop out of high school. That’s one to two MILLION kids who will drop out of high school. What repercussions does that have on a society? While the trails that students who drop out can go down are endless, we know one thing. According to the article listed above, 86 percent of juvenile offenders have reading problems, and 60 percent of prison inmates are illiterate.

86% of juvenile offenders have reading problems. 86%!!!

That’s nearly 100%.

The approach YOU as a teacher take to reading can determine your kids' approach to reading. The crucial nature of showing kids that reading can be exciting, that it can take them down new and better roads, that it can lead to a great life is more important now than ever. Did you know the average kindergarten student has watched more than 5,000 hours of television? That’s more time watching television than it takes to earn a bachelor’s degree in college.  More TV for a 6 year old than earning a college degree for a 22 year old.

This has to stop. And with the accessibility to tablets, PCs/laptops, smart-phones, google-glasses and so much more coming at an increasingly quick pace, the emphasis on picking up a book and reading is critical. And whether it’s for the good or the bad, it starts with you, the teacher.

Put the pride aside. Nobody wants to look silly or dumb in front of their students. But open up a book, create new voices, act out the scenes in the read-aloud, interact with the kids as you read. When I started teaching, I was in love with reading. And if my kids learned anything from me through the whole year, I wanted it to be to learn to love reading. It’s not innate in everyone. Some people (especially some kids) really hate reading, usually due to the struggle with it.

But I wanted THOSE kids to learn to love it. So, I decided my first year that I would put myself 100% into the stories I was reading aloud in class. Jumping on desks, using accents and different voices for the characters, rolling and falling on the ground, throwing things across the room, screaming, yelling, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” during intense moments!

It changed everything for some of those who hated reading, and motivated those who loved to read to dig in even deeper.

Whatever you do, whatever you emphasize in your classroom, I hope that reading is one of those things.
Reading can literally change someone’s life.

Don’t believe me? Check out Malcom Mitchell’s story here. A football player for the Georgia Bulldogs, this guy has an amazing story. I won’t give away the plot, but I do want to end with a quote from this dude.

He is asked: “Looking at your life now, with all you’ve accomplished, what are you most proud of?”

This is a guy who is a college football player for one of the most elite football programs in the country. And what is his answer?

“I finished the Hunger Games series in about 2 days.”

Astonishing. Inspiring. Motivating. Watch this guy’s story, friend.
Thanks again for reading.
Seriously, thank you for READING this blog. I am glad you have the ability to.

Best Wishes,

Joshua Lee

Click Here to check out Malcom's inspiring story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPLwQm2y83E

For even more about his story, check out http://deadspin.com/georgia-football-player-joins-a-book-club-with-some-ver-1621115748.


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