Why Reading is the Most Important Thing You Will Ever Do

Reading is the most important thing a child can do. Yet so many parents don't seem to realize this. As a teacher of English in Thailand, one thing I find very frustrating is the lack of reading that goes on by most Thai students. However, my friends who are teachers in other countries say it's not that much different there. So why do more children not read and why is reading so important?

My mother taught me to read when I was three old. Consequently, when I started primary school I was the only kid who was in a corner reading a book while all the other kids were learning their ABCs. I had a head start in education that has never let me down. I 'm now in my 40s and I still read around 200 books a year. I also read internet articles, newspaper, magazines and even some comic books (very popular here in Asia). All of this information has imbued my life with knowledge and helped me in everything I do.

Children today have so many distractions - TV, internet, computer games, sports - that they think they don't have time to read and, quite frankly, they often find reading boring compared to these other things. But, if you can teach a child to enjoy books, that child has a companion for life and will always have the knowledge he or she needs to be successful in everything they do.

But why is reading really so important?

Words are our everyday tools. You use words in everything. You speak thousands of words every day. Most people write something every day. A letter, a resume, an article, a note, even two lines on a post-it - they all require words. If you read, words will come easier to you simply because of the vocabulary you will have. People who read are known to have larger vocabularies and usually find it much easier to compose a written piece or give a speech.