Classics: Why we should encourage children to read them

by Fiza Pathan

With the aid of this small book, I want to propagate the importance of classics to everyone, every student, parent and teacher. I know my compendium is small, but it’s a beginning.
Through this book I shall introduce to you the various classics that have influenced me, the different skills one can develop by reading good literature and how sometimes good fiction makes reality a lot more tolerable.

2015 Beverly Hills International Book Awards® Winner in the Education Category
Pinnacle Book Achievement Award Winner (Summer 2014)
Best Books in the Category of EDUCATION
Mom's Choice Awards® Silver Medal Recipient-Kindle version

Genres: Nonfiction, Education, Parenting

98 pages, Paperback

First published July 9, 2013

About the author

Fiza Pathan is a Roman Catholic born on the 19th of March 1989 and is from Mumbai, India.

Fiza has written and published seventeen award-winning books and short stories, which reflect her interest in furthering the cause of education and in championing social issues. In over seventy literary competitions, she has placed either as winner or finalist, chief among them being: 2020 DBW Awards; 2020 Writer's Digest Self-Published E-Book Awards; 2018 DBW Awards; Killer Nashville 2018 Silver Falchion Award; 2018 IAN Book of the Year Awards; 2018 Book Viral Millennium Book Awards; Readers’ Favorite Book Awards; Reader Views Literary Awards; Eric Hoffer Book Award; Foreword Reviews Indie Fab Book Awards; Mom’s Choice Awards; Literary Classics Book Awards; and Dan Poynter’s Global E-Book Awards. She established her own niche publishing company called Fiza Pathan Publishing OPC Private Limited where she publishes Rare Classics for younger readers.

She has been contributing articles, book reviews, parabolic stories, and theological essays to various Catholic Magazines for the past 16 years. She has been associated with ‘The Examiner’ which is a reputed Catholic newsweekly of India for the past 16 years. In recognition of her various literary achievements as a young Catholic writer, she has recently received the first ever Bronze Pen Award from The Examiner at its 175th anniversary celebrations in the year 2024.

She also contributes theological articles and book reviews respectively to the ICM (Indian Catholic Matters) online magazine as well as ‘The Teenager Today’ which is run by the Catholic congregation of St. Pauls. She also contributed articles to ‘The Vision & Venture’ and ‘Word Power’ as a youth, both of which are Catholic monthlies.

Fiza Pathan is currently pursuing her Masters in Theological Studies from Pontifex University Atlanta, Georgia asynchronously. She also pursues additional theological courses at the Institute of Catholic Culture in Virginia through its online platform to improve her knowledge of authentic Catholic theology, philosophy, and literature. She is currently in the process of becoming a Consecrated Virgin for Christ.

She is also pursuing her Post Graduate Certificate In International Teacher Education (PGCITE) at Podar International School, Santacruz. She is being trained to teach grades 1 to 12 in the IGCSE & IB curriculum. Her specializations will be in English Language, English Literature, Global Perspectives (GP) & Humanities. This is a Cambridge & IB Accredited Post Graduate Course.

She taught English Literature and History for a year at an ICSE school called Lilavati Bai Podar High School, Mumbai (2011-2012).

Fiza Pathan has a bachelor’s degree in arts from the University of Mumbai, where she majored in History and Sociology with a first class. She also has a bachelor’s degree in education, again with a first class, her special subjects being English and History.

She lives with her maternal family & her cat Lopez, and writes essays, book reviews, sketches, novels, and short stories in most genres. You may follow her on Twitter @FizaPathan and visit her blog insaneowl.com.

Reviews

[Debbie Wentworth Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually, the book I read was Fiza Pathan's Classics: Why and How We Can Encourage Children to Read Them which is a combination of the book named above, Classics: How We Can Encourage Children to Read Them, and My Take on the Classics: A Memoir.

Classics: Why We Should Encourage Children to Read Them describes the benefits of reading the classics, as she has experienced them and as she has seen them help her students. Some of those include improved comprehension, a better understanding of the world and of human nature, a strengthened understanding of grammar, growth in vocabulary. better writing, and others. She provides lists of classics that are good for different levels of education, boys, and girls. I especially liked her chapters, "Artistic and Scientific Temperament" and "Classics and Morals." I thought the latter especially beautifully written.

Classics: How We Can Encourage Children to Read Them provides different strategies to encourage children to read the classics. I especially liked her chapter "Born to Read" about one of her clubs for younger readers. She includes several fun quizzes about the classics.

My Take on the Classics: A Memoir is very personal. She tells of how she started reading the classics and the influence of Uncle Blaise who inspired and provided many classics for her over the years. His reading to her when she was little gave her a love for reading. Her school librarian was a secret initiator of her love of reading also. Pathan also includes letters to several of her students.

I think teachers and school administrators, homeschooling parents, and grandparents will especially benefit from this book. It combines good methods and reasons for encouraging the classics with a deep passion for them. At times Pathan's writing sings. It inspires me to get back into the classics.

[Doris-Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

True encouragement for students, teachers and parents
Sure, language skills and vocabulary of readers will be improved over time when reading a lot of classics. That's true for children and maybe adults alike.

Author Fiza Pathan, who usually writes poetry and short stories, constantly persuades her students and managed to get them to read classic books. She is enthusiastic when it comes to explain why students should read classic books, for example to discover the
wonderful descriptions of situations, feelings and environment.

In one chapter the author lists some all-time favorite classics and what subjects they deal with. For example Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, where readers can learn about the French Revolution, English Law, the art of interrogation, life of peasants and the storming of the Bastille. It is amazing how much these classic books teach while also entertain. Thanks for reminding us!

Funny, that Fiza Pathan's first classic book she read as a child, was not Anne of Green Gables or something in this genre, but DRACULA. She describes how surprised her student were when they learned this. She explains: "Dracula really got me to love literature and language. Also this classic was very well written, it turned out to be a real page-turner."

And I agree: many classic books are page turners and for sure worth to read, which the author proofs in her latest book. I would highly recommend it to students, teachers and parents.

[Margaret Virany · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this entertaining, informed, motivational book
23-year-old author Fiza Pathan of Mumbai, India
makes a passionate plea to encourage children and
adults to read one classic per week (or at least per
month.) Based on her own teaching experience, it
contains feedback from her students and their success
stories. Easy-to-follow tips, lists and examples are
presented precisely.Teachers will want to try out her
original techniques for stimulating English classes.
Parents and grandparents will feel empowered as
Pathan outlines how to help children see the sky's
the limit, get better grades, be articulate in
writing and conversing,and grow up to be happy
people. I really enjoyed this 90-page book and
recommend it highly because I am sure you will too.www.amazon.com/author/margaretvirany

[Ted Prokash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gets five stars on principle. I grew up on books. They were my first and truest friends. And what a well-adjusted adult and all-round fun time I have turned out to be.

Eschewing formal higher education, I took my degree from the classics of literature. As you can clearly tell, my story has been one of unmitigated success. After all, I use the words "eschew" and "unmitigated" with confidence and impunity.

Hurrah to Fiza Pathan for championing a good cause! It's a sight more championing than most of us do.

[Shelby Rollenhagen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I agree that classic literature has many positive benefits. However, this is nothing more than an opinion piece based on one persons personal and teaching experience. For someone with a background in English, there are surprisingly few references in this work. I do not know what research exists pertaining solely to the benefit of classic lit versus reading in general, but I do know that sourcing nothing does not lend credibility. Why not query other teachers? Why not reference studies?

Reading in general is shown to build many of the skills that the author discusses, so without further sourcing, it is hard to truly claim that classics do those tasks better.

(I am not saying that I disagree with the authors claim. I love classic literature and have a degree in English. I simply think there was a better way to execute this book without losing out on the chance to keep an engaging, fun tone.)

[Susan Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too often “the classics” of literature are considered too old and too difficult for our children to tackle. As our kids’ teachers, we try to put on a happy face and tell them they’ll love it. If we’re honest with ourselves and our children, we have to admit we used Cliff Notes when during our school days and have never really read a “classic.”

We all know the benefits these masterpieces of literature have for all of us; they continue to be a positive force in literature, they bring history alive, and many reinforce positive moral characters. The problem is we remember our own experience reading the classics in school. My teachers used one of two methods: read only a selected portion of a book and move on or read a chapter to discuss the next day.

The first method of cherry-picking a couple of chapters out of a book doesn’t give a reader the full sense of the story. We were expected to pick some moral lesson out of the few pages we read. Never did we get the full story or the opportunity to know the characters.

The second method is plain boring. “Read chapter 2 tonight and be prepared to discuss the reasons for the family moving.” Even though the entire story is read, trying to extract answers to specific questions throughout destroys the flow of the story, thus the enjoyment.

Fiza Pathan’s book CLASSICS: How we can encourage children to read them offers suggestions not to teach the classics but to encourage children to read the classics. She is a teacher in India. Her methods have been used in and out of the classroom. Plus, she speaks from experience.

Some of us still may wonder why we should encourage the reading of classics when there are so many modern books specific for children are available. A few of the reasons Pathan cites in the Introduction are to develop creative skills, philosophy and morals, and logical thinking processes. Many of the popular books for middlers and teens are lacking in all of these areas.

Instead of passing out a stack of books at the beginning of the term and assigning chapters to read, Pathan gives students and parents the opportunity to find pleasure in this literature. She suggests that “the first step must be the selection of a suitable book, one that matches the personality and tastes of the pupil.” What better way to inspire students?

Pathan encourages parents and educators, that would be most of us, to get to know the child before assigning a work to read. Picking specific books for children to read doesn’t instill a love for reading. Giving assignments based on the book doesn’t instill a love for great literature. Getting to know the interest of the student and offering a selection based on that interest does.

Doesn’t this sound like homeschooling? We know our children better than the textbook companies and we know their interest. Following Pathan’s advice to follow the interest of the reader fits well in most homeschool programs. Imagine, she suggests that parents read the classics and set an example for the students.

CLASSICS has other suggestions that allow each family to try what will work for them. Some of her ideas include watch the movie first, reading the classics aloud starting at a young age, or using abridged editions to spark an interest to read the full book.

The book does have what I consider meaningless activities such as word search puzzles. On the other hand, nearly every chapter has a list of books that fit well in the method selected.

I highly recommend CLASSICS; How we can encourage children to read them to all teachers, parents, grandparents, and everyone else who wants to instill a love for reading good literature

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I especially enjoyed the anecdotal portions of this book. I think that the children that Ms. Pathan worked with are more motivated in general than many American children. The closest comparison, in my limited experience, would be homeschooled children.

Whimsical in parts, and enjoyable throughout.

[Amber Swiger · Rating 5 out of 5]

..

Reading this short book has given me ideas to incorporate in my classroom . I will use suggestions in this book to help increase student learning .