Courtesy of Scott Abelman @ Flickr.com

Everyone tells parents to make sure their children read. Read, read, read: very important. Do they tell you how to accomplish this? Well, some people do, but they generally do so in dry-as-dust tomes that you and I won't read and wouldn't heed if we did. So, here's my totally unscientific approach. Give them comic books…or comical books. Give them things that are fun to read.

My daughter, a very persistent individual, (I blame her father) spent a great deal of time and energy convincing me to buy one issue of Archie comics in order to assess whether it was fit for human consumption. I was convinced the answer would be no. Needless to say, I was buying Archie comics on a pretty regular basis for quite a few years.

I made the mistake of mentioning Archie Comics in a conversation with Meredith's third grade teacher. Her expression clearly conveyed, "How could you allow your eight year old to read such trash?" How could I give her this brain candy where the cool characters are brats, adults are clueless, and everyone's values are shallow, selfish, antiquated and sexist?

Well…she liked them! Just think of the appeal: there were pretty clothes, pretty people, an attractive society beyond her reach…hmm, this is starting to sound like People magazine. In short, they were FUN. She read them and re-read them. And, hey, according to "The Experts" reading -- reading anything at all -- is the goal, right? Not quite.

Reading is fine, as far as it goes, but what matters is thinking. I can't count the number of conversations we had about why Veronica was lying to Betty, why girls think they have to have a boyfriend, how boys and girls should treat each other, how girls treat other girls when a boy is involved, how boys and girls think differently, how to detect a person's motives. I could list more, but you get my drift.

Sharing a book with your child insures that the values learned are your values. So, in fond remembrance of Archie and his pals, I will leave you with a quote from a dear friend of mine:

"Nobody is totally useless. At the very least you can be a bad example."

©2008 Marilyn Woodard

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