Brandon Dixon is Hooked on Books

"For some reason my classmates do not believe me when I answer the question 'How did you get smart?' by pointing to the long list of books I have read since I began devouring them sometime around second grade...after truly examining my intellectual growth throughout the past 12 years, I accredit more than 50% of my knowledge to what I gleaned while reading books." (Brandon Dixon)

Brandon Dixon, a freshman at Harvard University and recipient of the Gates Millennium Scholarship, wrote an essay about the connection between reading and good grades.  For some reading is a luxury; for others a waste of time; for Brandon, it is a necessity.  He accredits "more than 50% of [his] knowledge to what [he] gleaned while reading books."

Brandon points out that he doesn't pour over encyclopedias or dictionaries or textbooks -- he reads fiction.  Novels serve as a gateway to the world.  They peak his curiosity, prompting him to google a topic on the Internet or strike up a conversation with a budding scientist friend.  

Novels serve as a microcosm for the greater society.  Novels speak about the human condition.  They help us understand and empathize with the characters and, in turn, with other people.     

Brandon says he has learned leadership through the heroes in novels.  He has also learned about good versus evil, about morality.  He has learned that one person's definition of morality may vary from someone else's. 

The recent graduate points out that through literature, he can do almost anything.  "I have not physically experienced a lot of things in my life, but my mind has been places my body has never been..."

One might add that it was books that paved the way for Brandon to get into a prestigious school like Harvard.  I'm sure we will hear more from this well-read young man.  

http://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-daily/2015/08/31/reflections-love-of-books-leads-to-academic-success

James Michener's "When Does Education Stop?"

"Young man, your sad story is truly heartbreaking.  Excuse me while I fetch a crying towel."

In 1962, a literature student at a prestigious American university requested an interview with the author James Michener.  He immediately launched into his complaint about how his professor had given him an assignment for the summer to write a 3000 word essay about Michener's books.  The author, irritaed by his bellyaching, gave him a card which a chaplain had given him during the Second World War, which read:  "Young man, your sad story is truly heartbreaking.  Excuse me while I fetch a crying towel."

Decades later, nothing has changed.  My husband's university students complain about writing their essays.  And they only complete them for marks, not for the love of learning.

 MIchener pointed out to the young university student that we he sat down to research and write the book Hawaii, it was a five year and 3 million word "term paper".  It is not the small tasks which prepare us for life, but the big ones.

What we need to complete the big tasks in life is a good work ethic.  As Michener explains;  "When I was finally ready to write, I holed up in a bare wall, no telephone Waikiki room and stuck at my typewriter every morning for eighteen months."  Michener's novel was not yet complete.  He said that he rewrote each manuscript six or seven times before submitting it for publication.

Michener pointed out that if a job should be performed, not in a half-hearted manner, but to the best of one's ability.  "Young people...frequently fail to realize that men and women who wish to accomplish anything must apply themselves to tasks of tremendous magnitude.  A new vaccine may take years to perfect.  A Broadway play is never written, cast and presented in a week.  A foreign policy is never evolved in a brief time by diplomats relaxing in London, Washington or Geneva."

In his essay, Michener went on to say that most adults will work at three different careers in their lifetime.  With each career change, comes re-education.  "Adults who are unwilling to re-educate themselves are doomed to mediocrity."  The author pointed out that after the war, when President Truman or President Eisenhower picked a military figure for a particular job, he usually picked one that had re-educated himself.  For example, the head of Michener's outfit, William Calhoun, spent six hours a day learning French.

Michener said that in the closing months of the Second World War, he worked with a group of brilliant doctors studying alcoholism.  One of them asked him what he was studying in his own field, the field of literature.  Michener was embarrassed to think that he was studying nothing.  The very next day, he started the manuscript to the book Tales of the South Pacific.  It was another example of "Go big or go home."

Note:  James Michener held various jobs in his lifetime including teacher, businessman, soldier and author.  He went on to write at least 25 novels.

A map of Michener's novels courtesy http://home.comcast.net/~arbjlb/michener.htm.