No man has a right to bring up his children without surrounding them with books.
—Horace Mann
Do you know Lewin’s equation? You’re experiencing its implications as you read this: B = f (P,E) Behavior (B) is a function of a person (P) and their environment (E). Our habits, our actions, our lives, are determined by our surroundings.
What does this mean for us as parents? Well, we’re largely the architects of our kids’ environment. We all have different means and ends, but within those means we control what we surround our children with. The influences. The colors. The moods. The people. The interactions. And of course, the most important thing there is to a child’s intellectual development: the books.
If you want them to be readers, you have to design the environment of a reader, as an architect does. You have to surround them with books. Good ones. Silly ones. Short ones. Long ones. Used ones. New ones. You have to display them prominently in your house. You have to take your kids to libraries and independent bookstores. Otherwise, how else could they possibly become readers?