do not have time to read. A statement increasingly recognized and used. In a society characterized by the frantic search of every possible minute to deal with daily tasks, reading often becomes an impediment. To stay in touch with the events around us, the choice is almost always up channels of information more immediate, but also more passive than the "complex" interpretation of a written text. Reading is hard work, requiring attention, participation and capacity for reflection.
active action is not sustained, as may be listening to a television or radio broadcast. But it is precisely for this reason that reading produces wealth, freedom of thought, decision-making autonomy. It frees us from prejudices and biases. It is precisely for this reason has always been feared and resisted in various ways, from the autocratic and dictatorial regimes. Reading is useful not only to its own intelletto. È anche indispensabile per lo sviluppo dell’empatia, dell’autostima, della capacità di introspezione e trasmissione delle proprie conoscenze e del proprio entusiasmo.
Tutte qualità che lo psicologo Daniel Goleman definisce “intelligenza emotiva”. L'importanza del libro nello sviluppo psicologico e cognitivo è un dato di fatto. Leggere favorisce la comprensione di sé e del mondo, sviluppa l’immaginazione, la fantasia, la creatività, la curiosità. Amplia la memoria, potenzia le capacità logiche ed astrattive. Dal punto di vista sociale, è dimostrato che i bambini abituati dalla famiglia alla lettura in età prescolare presentano un better academic performance, a facilitated social integration, an ability to solve problems more effectively. And it is the school after the family, the most important reference for teaching children to read and to appreciate the potential of this instrument.
Encourage children and young people's interest for the book is one of the most difficult challenges. But the reading as the primary need for the growth of the individual can not and should not be an 'imposition'. It should, however, supported the pleasure of reading, the value transmitted by teachers as an opportunity for life. Knowing how to deal with the reading of a text and it just means the content understand how to convey to others their ideas, their thoughts, their own interpretation of the world. Today as before, be able to communicate a role of enormous importance. But unlike the past centuries, thanks to the Internet and technology, which provides us with ever new instruments, this power is no longer confined to a narrow elite. It is for everyone ... of all those who have learned to read.
Massimiliano Fanni Canelles
* Gianni Rodari, writer and journalist, known for its imagination and originality, through stories, rhymes and poems, in many cases have become classics for children, has contribuito a rinnovare profondamente la letteratura per l'infanzia.
