When I say to a parent, "read to a child", I don't want it to sound like medicine. I want it to sound like chocolate.
Interpretation
Encouraging reading to children should be enjoyable, not a chore.
This quote emphasizes that when encouraging parents to read to their children, it should be framed as a delightful activity rather than an obligation. Mem Fox uses the metaphor of chocolate to convey that reading should be a sweet experience, fostering a love for books and learning in children.
In practice
During a parent-teacher conference to emphasize the importance of reading.
If every parent understood the huge educational benefits and intense happiness brought about by reading aloud to their children, and if every parent- and every adult caring for a child-read aloud a minimum of three stories a day to the children in our lives, we could probably wipe out illiteracy within one generation.
The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks between a child, a book, and the person reading.
The world of knowledge takes a crazy turn when teachers themselves are taught to learn.
The only things worth learning are the things you learn after you know it all.
Present-day Spain translates as many books into Spanish, annually, as the Arab world has translated into Arabic in the past 1,100 years.
With every book, you go back to school. You become a student. You become an investigative reporter. You spend a little time learning what it's like to live in someone else's shoes.
The entire educational process must be carried out with love, which is perceptible in every disciplinary measure and which does not instill any fear. And the most effective educational method is not the word of instruction but the living example without which all words remain useless.
Children want to mimic adults. They notice when you choose to prepare fresh vegetables over calling in another pizza pie for dinner. They will see that food made with love and care outweighs going through the drive-through window.
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