Literature's Effect on Education and Development

Literature. One word, ten letters, a thousand meanings. What comes to your mind when listening to this word is different from everyone else’s perception. We may define literature as something that you can read, or as everything that has been recorded on a paper, you might even consider it as a living style, but one thing should be clear to all of us humans: literature is the art of transmitting a message, whether it implies feelings, stories, thoughts, ideas, or wether it’s oral or verbal. Since mankind exists, literature has become part of our living, being modified through time, making time traveling possible.

But this so called literature isn’t only a hobby, or something to entertain yourself with, there is actually many more to it. Every single day, at least a thousand humans complain on topics such as traffic, pollution, the governments’ corruption, the lack of education, etc. But does anyone really offer a solution to the problem? No. Some people may find solutions in ecological products, or moving to another country, changes and changes occur with each president, but no one appears to aim the right target, is it that hard to notice? I don’t think so: lack of education.

Education doesn’t mean to copy down things from a blackboard into your notebook and forgetting everything the next day, it does not mean to learn things by memory nor being part of a high economic class. Being educated doesn’t only mean assisting to classes in school, it is the will that someone has towards learning. Understanding and processing languages, historical events, geography, economy, values, ethic, politics, and everything that surrounds us are different ways to become someone more educated, becoming someone more intelligent and prepared for life in this century.

But, what happens if you can’t afford attending to school, or your teacher isn’t qualified enough? Will I be someone ignorant if no one hands me tools for education? What will I do if information that I’m learning in class is not accurate or just not enough? First ask yourself: how did people in the past learn? They based themselves on daily life experiences, so, where can I find their discoveries, their results? How will I, as human being, be able to collaborate and succeed in a community without sufficient tools? The answer to all these questions is: Literature.

Literature, wether it’s a book, a newspaper, a novel, a dictionary, cave paintings, an oral story, a fiction narration, will always leave something behind in individuals. Right there on a rusty shelf in a library, stands information to our past, words that offer us the keys as humans to create a better future, to progress, to avoid the same mistakes. Literature gives you the keys to independency, to criteria and actualized information. So if wondering why there are countries with lack of development, if asking yourself why children beg for money in the streets, think of it all as a cycle: we have forgotten how important literature is for life, avoiding the transmission of reading habits to our children. So next time you say reading is boring, or you just don’t like books, think of it twice, the solution to your problems and doubts is surely lying between its pages. Just as C.S. Lewis once said: “Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.”