“I’ve improved so much in my writing, Anna,” said one of my students the other day. As a Swedish teacher and lover of literature, I am so happy that my heart enlarges a little. At the same time, I think about how we came to this result together. Of course, by writing a lot, most people think. But I know it’s a result of us reading so much.
In my classroom I have 30 students all day. We always have a book in the works. Reading is a central part of the teaching and we read entire novels – from cover to cover. Sighs can sometimes be heard from the teenagers. “Oh, what a thick book!” or “Do we have to read the whole book?”. Yes we must!
“Reading develops thought”
We all read the same book together. We discuss the reading. We think about the writing and the message. We think about the characters’ experiences. We talk about feminism, discrimination, historical events.
Taking part in other people’s thoughts and feelings, experiences and experiences strengthens us as individuals. Through literature, we can travel through time, dive into someone’s brain, ponder why the world looks the way it does. How it feels when your father is murdered by his brother. No other medium develops us and our thinking in the way that literature does.
If we have read about someone who has gone through something difficult, we can meet our fellow human beings in a humble, empathetic way. If we have read about love, fate, fears, society’s change, we can think for ourselves when it happens to us. Because it does.
Reading develops thought. And we develop in our writing.
Anna Persson, Swedish teacher at Ekens school in Stockholm
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