A Canadian study by a group of teachers working intensively with students who had been labeled “learning disabled” found that the students weren’t disabled at all. They were simply “inactive learners,” students who lacked motivation because nobody had touched their hearts, inspired them, turned them on to learning.
My three-decade odyssey as “the pied piper of reading and writing” at schools and education conferences in 39 states, Europe, and New Zealand — with teachers in every imaginable circumstance from exclusive private schools in upstate New York to archaic schools in poverty-ridden backwater areas — confirm the Canadian study. We must do more than teach our children to read; we must inspire them to read. We must do more than teach them how to read; we must teach them to love to read. — From “Reading: A Bridge Over Troubled Waters” by John Gile
