A few years ago, I read a column titled, “Does Stacking Books Make Your kids Smarter?” According to research conducted by teams in Australia and the U.S., even if children don’t read books, just seeing stacks of books at home can enhance their intellectual abilities. It was also said that having many books at home had a positive impact on educational achievement. This wasn’t a hastily conducted study; it was published in the international academic journal of sociology and statistics, ‘Social Science Research’, and analyzed five years of data from the OECD’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). The study compared the amount of books at home during childhood and adolescence with test results from a survey of 160,000 adults in 31 countries.
Hmm… I wonder if mothers buy these books because of such research findings? In every house I visit for classes, there are a lot of book set proudly occupying the living room. The sight is so impressive that even as an adult, I feel overwhelmed. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for children to deal with the intimidating sight of grande collection of books and the stern gaze of their mothers.
I believe this study shouldn’t focus solely on ‘how many books are there’. Houses with many books are likely to have highly educated parents who are passionate about education. They would have shown their children the habit of reading books regularly. Children learn by watching their parents. It’s naturally the parents’ role to help children access the displayed books. So, it’s not about having many books, but rather the attitude and habits of book-loving parents that matter more.
Who commissions such studies? I have a reasonable suspicion that it might be conducted by publishers who produce book sets. The results encourage filling walls with books. Who wouldn’t want to improve their child’s educational achievement by decorating with books? Especially when we live in South Korea, the world’s top education republic!
However, as mentioned earlier, books that are only used for decoration serve only as decorations and reach their lifespan. When I visit for classes, I always see many book set neatly lined up, maintaining their position without changing order for years. Mothers buy book set out of anxiety and fear. They feel compelled to ensure that their children don’t miss out on what they should learn at each stage, and book set with well-organized books for each age group are very attractive and convenient. Unfortunately, what mothers often end up buying is not books but interior props.
I’ve been rather verbose in criticizing book set. Now let’s choose to be a little more diligent instead of being afraid. The power of a book chosen by a mother, a book that a mother has read first and been moved by, is very strong. Go to a bookstore with your child, choose a book together (yes, it’s hard because they’ll choose comic books… but let’s negotiate with them) and read it together. Without this process, the books that mothers unilaterally buy at great expense become burdensome homework for children. It’s sad that books, which should be lifelong friends, become burdens.
Of course, there are many good book set too. For example, classics from Si** and Bi** publishers are really excellent. But even then, I recommend not buying them all at once. If your child finishes reading one book, then recommend the next one. This enhances your child’s sense of achievement in reading. The only book set our children had was folk tales. Folk tales are a genre that most children like without resistance. I would like to recommend owning a book set of folk tales from a good publisher and letting it wear out from reading it so much. For other books, based on your child’s interest and what you’ve studied as a mother, buy them one at a time and slowly fill your bookshelf. Colorful books of different sizes and thicknesses… Let’s create a vibrant rainbow bookshelf that will give wings to our children’s creativity~~
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