Reading is like oxygen

Reading for pleasure is simply not in the air these days. Children are the barometer. Ontarios Grade 3 and 6 pupils seem to be losing the pleasure of reading. In Grade 3 in particular, just 50 per cent said they like reading in 2010-11, down from 76 per cent in 1998-99, a major survey found. A society that loses the joy of reading would be impoverished, and not just in things that money can buy. So why has the love of reading apparently shrunk? The answer is to be found primarily at home, not in the schools. Public schools