Thursday, February 3, 2011

Booking Through Real Life

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How would a teen-age boy who is going to work with his hands ever use Literature of England in his work? The age-old “How am I going to use this in real life?” question. How would you answer it?

As a teacher, I am asked such questions all the time and I have spent half my teaching life answering this. Why do we study/read a certain subject or a book? I will answer this taking in consideration the following aspects: Education/Knowledge/Work aspect/Behavioural  patterns.

In our life, we all need the basic skills. For that we need basic math, and language skills. If we have solid knowledge of both, learning other things becomes easier. Here I don't speak of higher math. I speak of that math, which helps in daily life. Without that we can't really move in any direction. And we need language skills to communicate. Education covers these VERY basic aspects.

Next comes knowledge. If we have the basic skills, we want to acquire knowledge. That makes us more upwardly mobile. Once we gain some knowledge, we want to have skills for working. Now work/job is important and here specialization becomes one aspect.

I should have mentioned behavioural pattern on top, but I left it for the last. Why? All that I said here adds up to that. Shapes our behaviour. 

The life depicted in books are in fact taken from real life. We might not identify it at a glance but somehow it stays in our subconscious. Whatever we study or read, we do pick up something and it only enhances/enriches our life.

10 comments:

anthonynorth said...

All good points. It's so important. You'll find mine here.

DawnTreader said...

I once encountered a similar question although it was about why to bother learning a foreign language rather than about reading fiction. You'll find my thoughts at Beyond the Lone Islands

Barbara H. said...

Great answer. Reading influences how we think and act.

Anonymous said...

I like what you said about the behavioral aspects. That what we read influences us and stays in our subconscious.

bermudaonion said...

You said it perfectly!

CMash said...

Well said. Enjoyed reading the thoughts from the academic angle.

Lori said...

I actually didn't like the question...Partly because I didn't understand it, LOL Partly because I realized I learned nothing from the books I read. Booking Through Thursday

Anonymous said...

here's mine http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2011/02/booking-through-thursday.html

zetor said...

That's a good answer, mine is here, http://zetor-mogsblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/booking-through-thursday.html

Joy Weese Moll said...

A great explanation of the benefit of reading!