Yesterday something strange happened when I published this post, unexplained the text was translated to Portuguese and I could not undo it, so I had to do the all text again today. I think was another interference, like so many others that has been happened in my life in the last 15 years. I hope everybody like to know more about literature. This post is a summary of four articles. The first with the title above, published in 2010 at http://www.education.com/reference/article/benefits-literature/. The second was published at http://www.ukessays.com/essays/philosophy/literature-has-qualities-which-improve-society-philosophy-essay.php. The third was published at http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/diniejko. The last and fourth was published in 2013 at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/world/asia/using-books-to-build-a-ladder-out-of-poverty.html?
Literature is an important component of a language program at all levels because of the many benefits it offers. Here are some reasons for integrating literature into your curriculum. Literature provides pleasure to readers. It is a relaxing escape from daily problems, and it fills leisure moments. Developing a love of literature as a recreational activity is possibly the most important outcome of a literature program. Literature builds experience. Readers expand their horizons through experiences. They visit new places, gain new experiences, and meet new people. They learn about the past as well as the present. They discover the common goals and similar emotions found in people of all times and places. Literature provides a language model for those who read it. Good literature exposes readers to correct sentences patterns, standard story structures, and new vocabulary. Literature develops thinking skills. Discussions of literature bring out reasoning related to sequence, cause and effect, character motivation, visualization of actions and critical analysis of the story. Literature supports all areas of the curriculum. When students read, they are practicing their comprehension in meaningful situations. Literature helps readers deal with their problems. By finding out about the problems of others, readers receive insights into dealing with their own problems.
Martha Nussbaum, Professor of Ethics at the University of Chicago said, "literature has qualities which improve society by helping people be better citizens. To some extent this is true of all arts. All have a role in shaping our understanding of the people around us." She argues that a strenght to be drawn from stories and that which will improve our society is learning to be empathetic. Whether mythical or real stories we decide the value of the ideas it contains. Adversity is a theme in all good stories, it means we are alive. Empathy is the combatant of selfishness. It is consider someone else and to wonder about him or her. All of this seems pertinent to decisions we must make as citizens. In "Braveheart", the citizenry of Scotland is suffering the injustices of colonization. Empathy is an important part of every character in the story. William Wallace`s wife is murdered and he decides to fight for justice, freedom, love and friendship. He and his allies are driven by empathy because even though no one else knows his pain, they fight to protect each other and for the same causes. The fact is that it could have happened to them as well. Imagining what he feels and knowing that it could happen again to another person unless they change that by fighting. Honesty is an asset to a society, the ability to share one´s voices has to be a upheld. Real issues require realism, things which are relevant to the treatment and the behavior of our citizens is an ethical matter, so if censorship happens how can we explore those issues properly?
Charles Dickens was not only the first great urban novelist in England, but also one of the most important social commentator who used fiction effectively to criticize economic, social and moral abuses in the Victorian era. Dickens showed compassion and empathy towards the vulnerable and in disadvantaged. Dickens`s deep social commitment and awareness of social ills are derived from his traumatic experiences. Dickens developed a strong social conscience, an ability to empathise with the victims of social and economic injustices. Dickens wrote about the importance of social commitment. Although Dickens`s early works implied faith in the new commercial middle class as opposed to the old aristocracy, the writer saw the discrepancy between the ideas and practice of this new class and the principles of morality and ethic. During the 1850s Dickens`s interests shifted gradually from the examination of individual social ills to the examination of the state of society, particularly its laws, education, and the terrible conditions of the poor.In "Hard Times," human relationships are contaminated by economics. The formation of a selfish and an atomistic society. Dickens as a social commentator exerted a profound influence on later novelists committed to social analysis. Some of his concerns with the conditions-of-England question were further dealt with Charles Kingsley, George Eliot, George orwell, and Martin Amis.
John Wood is the founder of Room to Read, a U.S. NGO dedicated to improving literacy in developing countries. He left his job at Microsoft and found it, which has opened 15,000 libraries and 1,600 schools. Room to Read is now the size of a corporation itself, with 10,000 volunteers in 53 cities. He said in an interview, "The seed for Room to Read was planted in 1998 when I took a vacation to trek in Nepal. One year later, I returned with 3,000 books. Education is one issue that has a ripple effect. Educated people work their way out of poverty, and educated people have much more stable societies. So if you get education right, you get every other issue right. If yoou can give these kids a school with great teachers, a library with great books and librarians who encourage them to read. The community involvement in our projects is important. Everything is based on a self-help model. Things get done because the local people are investing in their own solution. Now we have our sights set on Indonesia, and we want to expand our programs into the region as we see great opportunities to raise communities up through education. We plan to go to South America at some point. The big goal for us once we reach 10 million kids is to not stop there but to be part of a global movement. And the solution is not expensive. $250 dollars puts a child in school for a year, $5,000 opens a library serving 400 children. These are immediately deployable solutions to transform children`s lives through education.
Literature is an important component of a language program at all levels because of the many benefits it offers. Here are some reasons for integrating literature into your curriculum. Literature provides pleasure to readers. It is a relaxing escape from daily problems, and it fills leisure moments. Developing a love of literature as a recreational activity is possibly the most important outcome of a literature program. Literature builds experience. Readers expand their horizons through experiences. They visit new places, gain new experiences, and meet new people. They learn about the past as well as the present. They discover the common goals and similar emotions found in people of all times and places. Literature provides a language model for those who read it. Good literature exposes readers to correct sentences patterns, standard story structures, and new vocabulary. Literature develops thinking skills. Discussions of literature bring out reasoning related to sequence, cause and effect, character motivation, visualization of actions and critical analysis of the story. Literature supports all areas of the curriculum. When students read, they are practicing their comprehension in meaningful situations. Literature helps readers deal with their problems. By finding out about the problems of others, readers receive insights into dealing with their own problems.
Martha Nussbaum, Professor of Ethics at the University of Chicago said, "literature has qualities which improve society by helping people be better citizens. To some extent this is true of all arts. All have a role in shaping our understanding of the people around us." She argues that a strenght to be drawn from stories and that which will improve our society is learning to be empathetic. Whether mythical or real stories we decide the value of the ideas it contains. Adversity is a theme in all good stories, it means we are alive. Empathy is the combatant of selfishness. It is consider someone else and to wonder about him or her. All of this seems pertinent to decisions we must make as citizens. In "Braveheart", the citizenry of Scotland is suffering the injustices of colonization. Empathy is an important part of every character in the story. William Wallace`s wife is murdered and he decides to fight for justice, freedom, love and friendship. He and his allies are driven by empathy because even though no one else knows his pain, they fight to protect each other and for the same causes. The fact is that it could have happened to them as well. Imagining what he feels and knowing that it could happen again to another person unless they change that by fighting. Honesty is an asset to a society, the ability to share one´s voices has to be a upheld. Real issues require realism, things which are relevant to the treatment and the behavior of our citizens is an ethical matter, so if censorship happens how can we explore those issues properly?
Charles Dickens was not only the first great urban novelist in England, but also one of the most important social commentator who used fiction effectively to criticize economic, social and moral abuses in the Victorian era. Dickens showed compassion and empathy towards the vulnerable and in disadvantaged. Dickens`s deep social commitment and awareness of social ills are derived from his traumatic experiences. Dickens developed a strong social conscience, an ability to empathise with the victims of social and economic injustices. Dickens wrote about the importance of social commitment. Although Dickens`s early works implied faith in the new commercial middle class as opposed to the old aristocracy, the writer saw the discrepancy between the ideas and practice of this new class and the principles of morality and ethic. During the 1850s Dickens`s interests shifted gradually from the examination of individual social ills to the examination of the state of society, particularly its laws, education, and the terrible conditions of the poor.In "Hard Times," human relationships are contaminated by economics. The formation of a selfish and an atomistic society. Dickens as a social commentator exerted a profound influence on later novelists committed to social analysis. Some of his concerns with the conditions-of-England question were further dealt with Charles Kingsley, George Eliot, George orwell, and Martin Amis.
John Wood is the founder of Room to Read, a U.S. NGO dedicated to improving literacy in developing countries. He left his job at Microsoft and found it, which has opened 15,000 libraries and 1,600 schools. Room to Read is now the size of a corporation itself, with 10,000 volunteers in 53 cities. He said in an interview, "The seed for Room to Read was planted in 1998 when I took a vacation to trek in Nepal. One year later, I returned with 3,000 books. Education is one issue that has a ripple effect. Educated people work their way out of poverty, and educated people have much more stable societies. So if you get education right, you get every other issue right. If yoou can give these kids a school with great teachers, a library with great books and librarians who encourage them to read. The community involvement in our projects is important. Everything is based on a self-help model. Things get done because the local people are investing in their own solution. Now we have our sights set on Indonesia, and we want to expand our programs into the region as we see great opportunities to raise communities up through education. We plan to go to South America at some point. The big goal for us once we reach 10 million kids is to not stop there but to be part of a global movement. And the solution is not expensive. $250 dollars puts a child in school for a year, $5,000 opens a library serving 400 children. These are immediately deployable solutions to transform children`s lives through education.
