Books

We are book people. There are books in every room of our house. Sometimes, there are books on every flat surface in the house. There are book shelves everywhere you look - stuffed to overflowing. Occasionally, dear hubby asks me to go through the books and get rid of some, but when I try to do that, I have a very hard time finding any that we(the kids or I) don't want.

Anyway, I share all this with you because I read a most wonderful article in World Magazine this morning regarding books in the home. Here is an excerpt-

Books in the home, even if they aren't necessarily read by the parents, promote better scores not only in English, but also in science and math.

The NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) study indicated that shelves of books are more important than income or parental educational backround. Homes with 10 or fewer books yield the lowest test scores, and the scores increase steadily with more books in the home, in history, civics, math and science.. The issue is not income, according to the study, or even whether the parents have a college education. "Students of high-school-educated parents living in homes with more than 100 books outscored students with college-educated parents and 0-10 books at home," the study notes.  

A poor family, with books in the house, will produce a child, on the average, who will do better in those subjects than a rich kid with no books in the house, "Gioia added. "The data just shows the power of the home environment."

So, the next time I am cleaning off a table and wondering why there are SO many books laying around, I will try to remember this article :) After all, the books can't be read while they are sitting on the shelves.