Do you read me ?

Reading habit has reduced a lot among the school children these days, thanks to the computers. Learning through multimedia is definitely easy and fun. Reference books are too good to have in a computer because it is easy to search and cross refer. But for a plain book, I havent seen any software/hardware that is as convenient as a paperback that you can carry anywhere around the house and read. Moreover I feel that to learn the basics, computer is not as effective as reading a book.

A good understanding on a subject is acheived only when you ponder about it. A multimedia presentation may be clear to understand. But if things are so clear and there is so less to think about it, you understand only what is presented, but you may not be able view/express it in a different way. Paper book gives an opportunity to ponder about what you read thus providing a scope for a better understanding than what is actually presented in a book! For the same reason, I usually suggest kids to read books that are not their prescribed text books. I have seen teachers who totally misrepresent the text books. What the kids learn from a text book is what the teachers explain and not what they are supposed to learn!

I bought 'Intelligence' by Osho in bangalore book festival. This book also shares my opinion on how the educational institutions in india makes pupil less intelligent.Though I also studied in the same educational setup, the books I read helped me in identifying the weaknesses of the system and keep away from it. I could no longer see some of the excellent books for kids from the Mir Publishers in the market. Nevertheless, good books still exist! Unfortunately for today's kids, computer overtakes the books. Parents are happy with kids learning what is being taught, unaware that the kids are loosing their ability to think independently.

Edit : Check this link