If you are a parent you might consider taking a count of the number of books you have in your home. This may seem trivial; however, a 20-year study by Mariah Evans, University of Nevada, and Reno associate professor of sociology and resource economics, discovered that the number of books in a home has shown to raise the educational level of children in the home. That is, the difference in educational level of the children between being raised in a bookless home as compared to a home with a 500-book level was significant, regardless of parents’ educational level. Whether the parents are barely literate (only 3 years of education) as compared to parents who have a university education (15 plus years) proved not to be a significant factor in the potential educational level of their children. Having a 500-book library, however, raised a child 3.2 years in education! Moreover, Evans found that children of lesser-educated and economically disadvantaged parents would benefit the most from having books in the home (Science Daily, 2010).
She poses the question, "what kinds of investments should we be making to help these kids get ahead?” The results of her study indicate that getting some books into such homes is an inexpensive method for helping these children succeed. Further she found that having as few as 20 books in the home had a significant impact on moving a child to a higher level of education. In other words, the more books you add, the greater the benefit, (Education World, 2016).
Moreover, in countries such as China, she found that having 500 or more books in the home increased children’s educational level 6.6 years. In the United States, the effect was less, 2.4 years, less than the 3.2-year average advantage experienced across all 27 countries. But, Evans points out that “ 2.4 years is still a significant advantage in terms of educational attainment.”
Evans was struck by the positive effect having books in the home had on children's educational attainment beyond such factors as the educational level of the parents, the country's GDP, the father's occupation or the political system of the country. In short, having books in the home is twice as important as the parents’ education level, and more important than whether a child was reared in China or the United States. Interestingly, the difference in educational attainment for children born in the United States and children born in China was only 2 years, or less than two-thirds the effect that having 500 or more books in the home had on children.
Evans believes that having books in the home stimulates reading, particularly with very small children. For example, simply talking about the books as the parent reads can make a huge difference (*please see “The Read Aloud Program”). Furthermore, homes in which books are used to stimulate intelligent conversation, rather than argumentation, serve as an important contribution to children’s so-called learning strategies (Education World, 2016).
Evans goes on to say: “when children observe what their parents do, reading at home is very important in a role-modeling sense. Children gain skills and culture/content from the books in the home. These skills and content even help children perform better on standardized tests. Bookish homes help children enjoy school and see their teachers as valuable coaches. Success in performance in school, leads to a positive relationship with school and education, encouraging young students to continue in education even when the going gets tough. I admit that this question contains quite a load of hypotheses, but that’s how we suspect the process works.”
Therefore, as concerned parents, we should consider the impact on our children as they live in a home with or without books and with or without adults who actually take them off of the bookcase and read them.
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