What is the connection between reading and learning? I can personally attest to the fact that reading does facilitate learning. Reading materials need not be limited to the academic variants since knowledge can be contained in children’s books, romance books, poems and stories hastily written after a flash of inspiration, and even in one-liner quotations scribbled on old notebooks and loose papers.

wall decal read and learn

Reading and Learning Trivia

The lines above are attributed to Dr. Seuss, an American writer, poet, and cartoonist whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel. He is most well-known for his children’s books, publishing about 46 in all plus several others penned under the names Theo LeSieg and Rosetta Stone. The National Read Across America Day is celebrated every March 2nd, Dr. Seuss’ birth date. This annual event has been purposely initiated by the National Education Association to be observed on the said date in recognition of his dedication to the cause of increasing literacy in the US.

His most famous works include If I Ran the Zoo, Horton Hears a Who!, If I Ran the Circus, The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Green Eggs and Ham, among others. Found between the lines of these seemingly childish stories are lessons on various social and political issues. It is interesting to know that the very popular The Cat in the Hat was a result of a reaction to an illiteracy report published in Life Magazine in May 1954. The report came with a conclusion that children were not learning to read because their books were boring.  William Ellsworth Spaulding, who was then the Director of the Education Division at Houghton Mifflin commissioned Geisel (Dr. Seuss) to write a book which “children cannot put down”. Its strongest point was its simplified vocabulary and the rest, as they say, is history.

Is Learning Without Reading Possible?

This question can be answered philosophically by some and say yes it is possible. To the extent of practical learning in life, that may be true. To the extent however of knowledge that can only be acquired with a reading component, learning may prove impossible.

Reading can take us to places we have never been to or probably will never see in our life time. Reading entertains us. Reading can even be a matter of survival from our simplest daily needs to making life-changing decisions. Reading enables us to continue learning even outside a classroom environment. Even in places where books may have taken a back seat to the Internet, reading remains an essential capability.

My Say

People are literally like sponges soaking in information as they read. Dr. Seuss is very right in the aspect that people can go to more places, literally and figuratively speaking, when they read more. Reading opens up avenues for learning in more ways that we can ever imagine thereby enabling us to enrich and enhance our lives as we learn along the way. In the process, we likewise learn beyond academics because we learn to live life itself.

Reading and learning go together. One without the other makes for an incomplete proposition which is easily solved by simply choosing to read. Whether we read for entertainment or as a matter of survival, we are bound to learn one way or the other.