Read a book to your teenager.
Future parents might gawk at that sentence. Isn’t a teenager too old for something as childish as his parents reading to him? Current parents might blanch as well, believing they’ve done their time. Shouldn’t fighting a decade in the trenches of the ABC’s and children’s literature be enough to set a kid on the right track? Reading to children is a great first step in their education: Studies confirm that children whose parents read books to them frequently have much better literacy and educational outcomes. There is no reason to stop this trend in the teenage years, however. Nobody is too old to have a book read to them.
Take it from a teenager who is grateful that his parents did this.
For years, my dad read the Harry Potter series to my brother and me. We began the first book when I was 9 and my brother was 11, the same age as Harry, and we continued each year as we grew up with the protagonist. The series remains one of my favorites to this day. More important to me than the words on the page, though, are the memories with my brother and dad. At the age when parents are desperately looking for ways to stay in touch with their children, bonding with parents over books is fantastic quality time for teenagers. It also creates common ground. While there is a natural divide between generations, shared experience can bridge that gap. In the same way that social media and meme culture cultivate a shared identity among teenagers, stories form a common vocabulary among readers.
Do you grok?
No, I’m not talking about Elon Musk’s attempt at creating an AI overlord; I’m referencing Robert Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” — a classic I wouldn’t have picked up if not for my dad. Renowned novels like Frank Herbert’s “Dune,” Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation,” and Tom Clancy’s “The Hunt for Red October” became part of my repertoire because my dad had a wealth of book knowledge he wanted to share. As a young teen, I never would have pulled these titles off the shelf on my own. Even if I had, I wouldn’t have possessed the stamina to finish them. Since my dad kept us disciplined, I finished numerous classics that I’m so grateful to have encountered, and I strengthened my reading muscles to take on dense and difficult books. Reading to teenagers grows their literary horizons, exposes them to new ideas, and gives them a sense of accomplishment.
As important as the reading time is, what the reading replaces is just as important. Psychology Today says teenagers aged 13-18 spend 8.5 hours a day on screen-based media on average. That’s more than half their waking lives. Half an hour with a dusty paperback novel is a great way to break teenagers’ phone-induced fugue state. If they can’t wrench themselves away from screens for even a moment, there’s always Kindle. Parents reading to their teenagers makes the time consistent as well. A kid may pick up a book on his or her own every now and then, but parents can make it a habit. That means time purposefully set aside to build the intellect and imagination. My dad read to me nearly every night, whether it was a book I enjoyed or disliked. Reading together is consistent family time.
The kids aren’t the only ones who reap benefits. For parents, reading to teenagers is an opportunity to pick up a favorite read they haven’t had the time or occasion to reopen. Reading “Go Dog Go” to a demanding four-year-old might get tiresome quickly, but timeless works like “To Kill a Mockingbird” age as well as Tom Cruise. My dad loved the opportunity to relive classic stories with me and my brother as we experienced the twists and turns of his favorite novels for the first time.
Among the foremost debts I owe my parents are the nights I spent listening to my dad read stories — from my first tottering steps to the day I left for Hillsdale College. Without that investment, I wouldn’t have all of the smiles, inside jokes, and memories with my family which those nights of reading aloud created. I’m a reader: that’s important to my identity, and I owe it to my parents, who never stopped being readers themselves.
I plan to read books to my future kids for as long as they are under my roof. You should consider doing the same.
Brennan Berryhill is a sophomore studying English.
