What Can Young Students Learn from Literature

¶ … Children As Feeney and Moravcik (2005) point out, literature can fulfill a number of purposes for children: it can help them acquire literacy, gain information, provide entertainment and rest during transitional periods in their lives. It can also help affect them on a deeper level: through literature, "children can develop understanding of themselves and others" (Feeney, Moravcik, 2005, p. 20). Understanding themselves as well as their peers can help children to grow, can help them to form their hearts and minds, and can help reinforce concepts that society values.

Stories engage children and children engage with stories. The process is one that supports development because as theorists have shown, "development takes place through interaction between the child and the environment" (Feeney, Moravcik, 2005, p. 21). This kind of interaction can allow kids to construct new meaning of the world in which they live. Literature thus has an empowering affect on children. Quintero (2005) notes that literature -- especially multicultural literature -- can help children to pose problems and find solutions that are recognizable to them in their own lives.

Because there are so many cultures and ethnicities all around us, literature helps children focus on the realities of their environment and approach those realities with calm reassurance. They see in the books a reflection of their own issues and learn ways to deal with them, or obtain comfort from the understanding that they are not alone. So many options are available to young learners when it comes to literature that the possibilities for growth and enlightenment are virtually endless.

Children learn and grow by interacting with their surroundings and experiencing new ideas or even old ideas in new ways through literature. Thus, it is important to expose young children to literature so that they can become formed and informed, polished and confident. Books allow kids to have experiences with characters and activities in places and times that they would otherwise never have the opportunity to explore. Books essentially open the world to young learners: they also act as guides as the young learner enters into that new world.

The author has in mind an end that is to be achieved and the learner, by placing himself in the hands of the author, allows for an exchange to take place. The child gives the book his or her time and the book in return gives the child a new experience. Experiences are the foundation blocks for learning, because it is from experience that we all base our opinions, perspectives, comprehension and sense of ourselves and the world around us.

Books can also help children learn about diversity, which helps kids to better understand how to interact with those around them and engage more comfortably with their peers. Recognizing differences and being able to accept them as normal is something that literature can teach them. Books that have a multitude of diverse characters show students that there is nothing to be afraid of when it comes to different.