The U.S. Department of Education recently authored a report entitled the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. The report follows more than 20,000
American schoolchildren from kindergarten through the fifth grade, gathering
each child's test scores and demographic information. The parents of each child
were asked numerous questions regarding their families' habits, lifestyle and
activities. The final report is an extraordinary wealth of data that, when given
a rigorous analysis, provides some powerful indications regarding the
fundamentals of parenting methods.
One of the study's interesting conclusions is that a child who has fifty books
in his/her home scores roughly five percent higher than a child without any
books. Moreover, a child with one hundred books at home scores an additional
five points above the child with fifty books. Most people would look at this
data and presume that the number of books in the home correlate to the amount
of time in which a parent or caretaker reads to the child. However, the
conclusion of the study is quite different. Regardless of the time spent on
reading to a child, the mere presence of books in the home influenced a child’s
test scores. In other words, parenting is as much--and perhaps more--about who you are, than
about what you do.
Parenting is perhaps one of the most difficult undertakings which a person
will perform in his/her life. Theories abound, and in the effort to produce the
"wunderkind" mothers and fathers will often put their child, as well as themselves, through a rigorous schedule of classes,
concerts, museum visits, and yet
more classes. Beginning in the womb, the fetus must listen to Mozart; then as a
small child he/she will be enrolled in a specialized pre-school, eventually
forced to take ice-hockey, violin, chess and extra math--an often grueling
12-hour day which will hopefully produce the perfect child: one who gains admission
into an Ivy League
School and eventually becomes a world-renowned surgeon or statesman.
I imagine that it would come as quite a disappointment to these super-parents
if they were to learn that the quality of the home and its atmosphere is far
more significant to their child's success than the quantity of classes and
cultural events he/she is transported to and the methods that have driven child development for so
long.
King Solomon writes in the book of Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing new under
the sun.” The Jewish people have always been known as "the people of the book,"
not merely because of our reputation for being studious, but more so because of
the Torah given at Mount Sinai which has unified us for generations--a Torah
explained, expounded and illuminated in thousands of books written and published throughout the centuries. Often, the Torah books in a Jewish home
will number more than can be learned even in a lifetime; still we have always
kept these books in our home, infusing the home with the spirituality and holiness
contained within their pages.
As one of the ten Jewish observances of his ten-point mitzvah campaign, the Lubavitcher Rebbe chose
Bayit Molei Seforim, a "home filled with books," urging Jews to purchase
Torah books and conspicuously display them throughout their homes, thereby
encouraging family and guests to study their teachings, ultimately and
intimately affecting one’s thought, speech and action for the better. But even if
the books lie dormant on their shelves, said the Rebbe, their mere presence will
permeate the entire home, positively influencing those who reside there both
during the hours they spend inside the home, as
well as when they walk beyond its doors. Just as a mezuzah protects the
inhabitants of the home within and without, so, too, the effects of the books
in the home reach far and wide.
So the ECLS study has its precedence. An environment establishes the
outcome. Merely bringing books into one’s home can determine the children’s test
scores since the books instinctively impart to the child that education is of
utmost importance to his/her parents, thus adding to a child’s determination to
do well in school.
Sacred Jewish books visibly displayed at home will subconsciously express its
owner’s appreciation for and reverence to these books, their values, their history and
their content, all the while encouraging the entire family and visitors to use read
them and learn from them. A Torah environment created though Torah books creates
a subtle yet constant atmosphere of holiness, inspiring Jewish thought and
practice and ultimately urging us to learn its teachings and enhancing our
lives, one book at a time.
