NZ's book-loving society
December 19th 2011 06:06
One last quote from Joy Cowley's book, Navigation. This time from pages 141/2.
It's not until we travel overseas that we become aware of New Zealand as a nation of readers. Here, even the smallest town has its library, its bookshop, its school where children are not merely taught to read, they are taught to love reading. Our education system makes full use of children's delight in story, their natural curiosity, sense of wonder, creativity and their expanding interest in language. It caters fro the different ways children learn, and is child-centred rather than teacher-directed. There is early emphasis on reading and its overflow into creative writing and art.
This country's literary tradition and its effect of education in the widest sense, no doubt played a significant part in the findings of a college professor in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He told me he wanted to visit New Zealand to see what made us achievers. He claimed that he had researched personal excellence in the world. Take the top ten names in any field, he said, medicine, music, sport, you name it, and one of those names will be that of a New Zealander.
For those of us who find it difficult to believer, a quick personal survey tends to confirm the professor's results: but we may be left with his question: How can this be in such a small population?
How indeed? The small population is a contributing factor. Large, dense populations, of necessity, breed conformity. A small population allows the development of rugged individualism and a pioneer spirit. The rest of the credit surely lies with our education system and a book-loving society.
Though Cowley makes a good case here, it's hard not to feel just a little sceptical still. And it would be good to know the name of the professor.
It's not until we travel overseas that we become aware of New Zealand as a nation of readers. Here, even the smallest town has its library, its bookshop, its school where children are not merely taught to read, they are taught to love reading. Our education system makes full use of children's delight in story, their natural curiosity, sense of wonder, creativity and their expanding interest in language. It caters fro the different ways children learn, and is child-centred rather than teacher-directed. There is early emphasis on reading and its overflow into creative writing and art.
This country's literary tradition and its effect of education in the widest sense, no doubt played a significant part in the findings of a college professor in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He told me he wanted to visit New Zealand to see what made us achievers. He claimed that he had researched personal excellence in the world. Take the top ten names in any field, he said, medicine, music, sport, you name it, and one of those names will be that of a New Zealander.
For those of us who find it difficult to believer, a quick personal survey tends to confirm the professor's results: but we may be left with his question: How can this be in such a small population?
How indeed? The small population is a contributing factor. Large, dense populations, of necessity, breed conformity. A small population allows the development of rugged individualism and a pioneer spirit. The rest of the credit surely lies with our education system and a book-loving society.
Though Cowley makes a good case here, it's hard not to feel just a little sceptical still. And it would be good to know the name of the professor.
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