Bookless land

As a Swede, you normally develop a close relationship to literature. As a child, your parents read to you every night before you fall asleep and the nursery school teachers constantly encourage you to browse books, point out different animals and spell out the words loud. One can say that Swedish children learn to speak partly through reading books. In El Salvador, this is not the case.

In Sweden, the reading habit is further enhanced in elementary, middle and high school, where literature is a mandatory part of the education. Children and young persons read a certain amount of books, learn to analyze and criticize them. Some read more in their free time than others, but everyone reads. All Swedish families I know, regardless of social class or educational level, have a collection of at least a hundred books, the great majority much more. You never see a home without a bookshelf. Again, some read more than others, and the kind of literature also varies a lot between individuals and social groups, but you see people reading everywhere. At the bus stop. On the bus. In waiting halls. In cafés. In the park. When a Swede is waiting or travelling, reading is a popular activity. But we also create space in our busy schedules just for the purpose of reading, like going to bed an hour earlier to read before falling asleep, or turning off the cell phone a couple of hours on a Sunday to relax in the bathtub with a good book.

In El Salvador, on the other hand, you never see people reading books. And I mean NEVER. People read what they have to read in school and they read newspapers, but I have honestly never seen a Salvadoran reading a novel (except my friend Enriqueta, but she is really a special case). Parents don't read to their children and litarature is not taught in school, so the people don't get used to reading books, and so the vicious circle is closed.

What does this "booklessness" imply? In my D thesis in Sociology, it was shown that regardless of other factors such as the educational level of the parents, gender and economical situation, the number of books in the home was the most important factor influencing the achievement in both mathematics and language among 9th grade students in El Salvador. Why is this? First of all, reading books implies developing and training of concentration capabilities important in all kinds of subjects in school. It also developes analytical skills, abstract thinking and creativity. I also believe that reading books can prevent a lot of aggression and violence, since it encourages identification with other people and to learn to understand different perspectives. Reading also teaches you things about the society and the world around you, through literature you experience social and cultural exchange. It's a treasure to which you can escpape a couple of hours to relax and to reflect. Reading books encourages many children to write stories themselves, and to learn how to express and handle their feelings with words instead of keeping them hidden through out their lives.

For most Swedes, reading books is a natural part of life and we don't reflect on all the benefits it implies for our living quality and for our society as a whole. Maybe some of you consider my praise to literature as a bit exaggerated? Maybe you're right. But I honestly don't think so. After spending more then a month here I'm even more convinced that reading books is one of many keys to escape poverty and to prevent violence at all levels in society. Not the only one, but one that could help.

The picture above shows a scene that touched me a lot. It's taken at a school who is running many excellent projects, one of them is an open air mini library. Seeing these Salvadoran children voluntarily read books during their break is something I will honestly never forget. It may seem silly, but in that moment I came to a decision that I think will have a lot of consequences for me as a person and hopefully for at least some children somewhere in the world.