Reading or written language is a cultural invention that necessitated totally new connections among structures in the human brain underlying language, perception, cognition, and, over time, our emotions.
Interpretation
Reading and writing have fundamentally changed how our brains work and how we think and feel.
This quote by Maryanne Wolf emphasizes that reading and written language are not just tools for communication, but profound cultural inventions that have reshaped the human brain. They have forged new connections between language, perception, cognition, and emotions, influencing how we process and understand the world around us.
In practice
In a discussion about the importance of literacy in education, this quote can highlight how reading shapes our brains.
Digital technology can be a great resource, but it can also be a pernicious one, so it's how we, as a society, really study the cognitive impact of that and use evidence-based research to go after the technology designers to do a better job of dealing with the problems of memory and attention we are seeing.
In reading, we are both scientists and poets.
The acquisition of literacy is one of the most important epigenetic achievements of Homo sapiens. To our knowledge, no other species ever acquired it.
The quality of our reading is not only an index of the quality of our thought; it is our best-known route to developing whole new pathways in the cerebral evolution of our species.
There's a richness that reading gives you, an opportunity to probe more than any other medium I know of. Reading is about not being content with the surface.
The attention span of children may be one of the main reasons why an immersion in on-screen reading is so engaging, and it may also be why digital reading may ultimately prove antithetical to the long-in-development, reflective nature of the expert reading brain as we know it.
Literature, not scripture, sustains the mind and - since there is no other metaphor - also the soul.
We donβt really care about test scores. We care about adult outcomes.
I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby.
I believe there should be breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack, all for free and for every child that goes to school. And all food that is good, clean and fair.
No man understands a deep book until he has seen and lived at least part of its contents.
Sadly, so many arts programs have been eliminated from schools due to budget constraints. These creative outlets are so very important, not only for a child's well-being, but also for self-expression and fun.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.