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The
question of how to go about developing, promoting and expanding interest in
reading in a society like Egypt can be approached from a number of angles. But
for the overall view that can provide an answer to this big question, it might
be useful to address it from all of these angles.
One
possible angle of approach is from the perspective of the reader, that is, to
try and pinpoint the reasons why the medium of reading is more appealing to
some people than it is to others.
Many theories have been advanced to explain this phenomenon.
Perhaps the most convincing is the
one put forward by the famous psychologist and psychiatrist Alfred
Adler, who ascribed the predisposition for reading displayed by some people to
a desire for excellence and distinction.
In much the same way that some people strive for recognition in the
domains of art or sports, so too others seek to make their mark by expanding
the scope of their knowledge through reading.
Over
thirty years ago, the famous man of letters, Abbas El Aqad, one of the most
prodigious readers of the twentieth century, was asked to explain how he had
become enamoured of reading at a very tender age and how he had sustained this
interest throughout his life.
His reply echoed Adler's theory.
El Aqad admitted that reading was for him a form of escapism, not from
life, but from the confines of one life, his own. He had a hunger for more
experiences and examples than one life could offer and to read was to gain
access to the lessons and experiences of many other lives. In fact, reading
was the key to the whole compendium of human history, with all its genius,
creativity and uniqueness.
Another
angle of approach is to view the spread of reading as the natural result of
certain educational systems and programmes.
Experience proves that some educational systems have been more
successful than others in encouraging and promoting reading. Most educational
systems in the Third World are based on teaching students by rote and on
cramming their heads with facts. Although they are often also characterized by
exceptionally long curricula, their results are disappointing when it comes to
developing a love of reading and to instilling a thirst for knowledge in young
people.
The
courses of study on offer in these countries are not designed to inspire
students or to stimulate a love of learning among them.
To do so, they would have to place greater emphasis on quality and less
on quantity than is presently the case.
This entails
cutting curricula down in length while enhancing
their content.
At the same time, teachers should be more concerned with whetting their
students' appetite for learning than with stuffing their heads with
unnecessarily long curricula.
Success in life is a function not of the amount of information stored
in a person's head but on the development of that person's personality and
faculties. Hence
the superiority of educational systems in certain countries, such as Japan,
Germany and France, over those of most other advanced countries, let alone of
developing countries, whose educational institutions are incapable of
producing creative people with the motivation to learn, read and seek
knowledge for its own sake.
Reading
can be viewed from yet another angle, namely, the connection between the role
of the mass media in a given community and the reading habits of the members
of that community.
It is very
important here not to fall into the trap of believing, as many now tend
to do, that reading has lost its ascendency to radio and television as the
medium of choice.
In fact, mass media, like television, radio and the press, can play a
role in promoting reading and in winning over new converts to the delights it
offers. Conversely,
they can impact negatively on people's reading habits by offering them a
steady fare of vacuous entertainment which tends to numb their critical
faculties rather than programmes that can stimulate a desire for knowledge and
encourage them to read.
In
this connection, it is important to rebut the allegation that the decline of
reading is a feature of today's world and that the frenetic pace of modern
life leaves very little time for reading which was, until as recently as fifty
years ago, the main tool by which people acquired knowledge and expanded their
mental horizons.
This is a complete fallacy which can easily be disproved by pointing
out that while modern mass media like radio and television have supplanted
reading in many countries, the same mass media have been used in others to
promote greater interest in reading.
Unfortunately, where the function of reading has been taken over by
radio and television in the less developed countries, mass media play an
effective role in furthering the cause of reading in the advanced countries.
It
is also important to note here that the more preponderant the entertainment
component of the programmes presented by mass media like radio and television
(soap operas, songs, films, etc.), the greater their role in depreciating
reading. By
the same token, the greater their educational/cultural component, the greater
their role in upgrading
reading, education and culture.
A
French, German or British programme on World War I or II, or about a historic,
literary or artistic figure (the film "Amadeus" is a case in point)
can serve as a bridge between the viewer and reading, by stimulating his
interest in acquiring more
information on the subject.
This is in direct opposition to the reaction of viewers in Third World
countries, whose cultural aspirations are badly served by the diet of often
inane serials they are subjected to by their mass media, which are designed
soley to kill time.
If
I have dwelt at some length on the mass media connection, it is out of a
profound conviction that modern mass media, specifically radio and television,
have an unlimited power to shape people's attitudes, that, in fact, they are
capable of building or destroying.
As
we have seen, then, the question of promoting reading should be approached
from the three angles we discussed.
Without in any way minimizing their pertinence, I would like to add a
new angle that I feel has not been given the attention it deserves, namely,
the socio-economic perspective.
When a society follows a market economy it is governed by the spirit of
competition.
This generates a process of
selection, that can be described as social Darwinism.
In this context, reading and knowledge acquire enormous importance,
with academic qualifications becoming factors in success and advancement and
the means by which to differentiate between the average, the better and the
best.
Societies governed by the laws of the market and of social Darwinism are in a
continuous quest for the brightest and best of their sons.
This invests culture, knowledge and reading with a vital strategic
importance going beyond the realm of personal preference and natural
predisposition.
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