Chapter 1 Summary and Values

Chapter one talks about how important literature is and how it should be introduced to children at a very young age. Literature is the foundation of our lives, to become somebody or just to manage everyday task we must be able to read and write. Literature should be introduced to children as soon as possible, the earlier they began the more imaginative they are and they can better relate to different situations they may encounter in everyday life. (They would be able to relate to characters in the story books). Thus, this will help them to be able to communicate better with people. The value of literature should be kept as a priority to help enrich the minds of our children. This chapter also talks about children learning in stages. These stages are: Language, Cognitive, Personality, and Social Development. Which literature can play a very important part in the development of all these stages. Again story books help the children understand a certain role or concepts that maybe they would not understand from an adult that is trying to teach them. They could probably identify better with the characters in the story book. Last it talks about how children respond to literature. We must remember everyone responds differently to the same text. People take into consideration there life experiences with what’s going on in the text. Same goes for children. Overall the chapter talks about how we must encourage and make literature a big part of children’s lives.

Value is something you believe in, something you live your life by. It characterizes what kind of person you are or strive to be. A value that is most important to me would have to be respect. Respect can cover all aspects in my life. I respect my self, others and everything around me. I think if you can learn to respect it will cover other values I believe in. It can teach you to be humble, loyal, honest, etc…, to yourself and everyone else. It can bring great qualities out of a person. This value was taught to me by many people in my life. I would say it started at home but I continued to learn about respect from friends, teachers, and coaches. Values can be learned from many different aspects, it can be viewed different ways by different people. Respect can be taught, but I think we learn best by example. I think I do set a great example for others in aspects of respect. A great way to respect someone is to not judge them on appearance; everyone should get a chance to shine.