Importance of Reading
Hello, my name is Ken Sorensen. Please see my bio below as a matter of introduction, along with my credentials.
I have been asked by Snugglybug Books to share some thoughts on the importance of reading, to the youngest children, as early as possible in their young lives, and honestly, its importance throughout their lives.
Reading has always been a matter of great importance in my life. There are wonderful books to recommend and wonderful authors to discuss. However, I would like to begin with the justification of just how reading dramatically improves our lives. Reading began at a very early age for me. I remember my mother looking up the stairs to make sure that the lights were off and I was often still reading. I was always in love with being transported to another location or another world and vicariously experiencing a life that I will never live. C.S. Lewis (that wonderful English author of “The Chronicles of Narnia”) said: “I can’t imagine anyone enjoying a book and reading it only once.” Often rereading is like returning to enjoy time with old friends and reminding yourself why they spoke to you so profoundly at a prior time in your life.
A recent post from the Warpaint Journal had this to say about reading. “A generation of kids growing up without reading isn’t just a generation that reads less. It is a generation that is slowly losing the muscle for empathy because books aren’t just stories. They are training grounds for imagination, for slipping into someone else’s life, someone else’s grief, joy, fear or message. They teach you to sit with feelings that aren’t yours. Without that, how do you learn to care about people who aren’t like you? How do you build a world where you pause before judging, listen before reacting, and understand before dismissing.”
That wonderful justification for reading tells us that we have so much more to see and to be in our world. Such experiences only come through reading. They come through us entering another world of people and places. Read and transport your life into something better. Yes, I love reading and the experiences that it brings.
I hope you will come back and visit Snugglybug Books for more information on the importance of reading, resources and giveaways to help you guide your child into a magical world that will benefit them throughout their life.
I will also be contributing posts from time to time … so until next time,
Keep reading to your child, it can make all the difference in the world to your child’s future.
Ken Sorensen
BIO
Ken Sorensen is a retired high school and junior college history and English teacher. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degrees and is certified to teach both history and English. During a 30-year career in education, he has taught high school in two states and at both Mesa and Chandler-Gilbert Community Colleges for 12 of those years.
Ken has always taught with a humanities approach believing that if we understand who people are and what their motives are, we will more likely understand what they have written.
In the summer of 2005, Ken won a scholarship to attend Exeter College in Oxford, England for a summer term of graduate studies.
In 2013, Ken was honored to be elected Teacher of the Year by the Mesa Arizona Chamber of Commerce following a student’s recommendation.
Additional teaching awards:
2003 - Si, Se Pueda Award (translation: Yes, You Can).
Award given annually to a high school and junior high school teacher in the Mesa School District who have helped young people in the Hispanic community to succeed. Ken was awarded the high school version.
2005 - The Cuthbert-Douglas Scholarship Award -
An award given to one English teacher per state. This is a scholarship and it allowed me to attend summer school at Exeter College, Oxford University in Oxford, England.
2013 - The Teacher of the Year Award
Annual award given by Mesa Chamber of Commerce. The award is given to one high school teacher in the district based on recommendations by students.
2019 - Mensa Conference
Presented at the International Mensa Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
Ken states the award that impresses him and the one he values the most is the Mesa School District. At high school graduations, that year's senior class can ask for one faculty member to give the speech honoring the senior class. In the 17 years with Skyline High School, he has been asked to give that speech 8 times.
For the last several years, Ken has created a lecture series on historical and literary topics and lectures at retirement communities and 2nd home communities to inform and educate on a variety of topics through engaging PowerPoint presentations. Sorensen says, “I am truly living the dream of a retired teacher because I get to do the research and create the presentations and then present to an enthusiastic audience, many who return over and over again.
You can reach Ken via his website: https://kensorensenlectureseries.com/