Strike up the brain band for literacy

Words matter.

Indeed, they strengthen gray matter.

During this, the North Idaho Regional Spelling Bee weekend, The Press has confessed concern over the decline of the written word in today’s world. And not just because our livelihoods depend upon it; because we believe literacy holds powerful keys to creativity, understanding, communication and, not to put too fine a point on it, basic health and happiness.

Business Insider published an edifying piece in December 2016 on 14 ways reading improves your life. We grudgingly acknowledge that the article, originally published by The Expert Editor, was widely consumed because it also blended words with attractive graphics.

Knowing full well that we’re preaching to the choir — bless you, readers — here are just a few reasons reading is good for you.

- Reading stimulates neural pathways to the brain.

- Reading decreases mental decline among the elderly by up to one-third.

- Reading improves short-term memory by creating new brain synapses and strengthening others.

- Reading can reduce stress by up to two-thirds.

- Reading can reduce depression.

- Reading can make you richer and better looking, too.

OK, we kind of made that last one up, but self-improvement books strongly suggest its veracity.

To paint the importance of reading in another way, we’re reminded of a local teacher who was working at an elementary school with a high percentage of children from poor households. The teacher lamented the fact that some of these children were never read to; that they basically were brought up by television sets filling in for absentee parents.

No wonder the kids had so much difficulty reading, the teacher said. And their creativitiy was non-existent. Television sets had numbed the kids’ imaginations. The children were deprived of the exhilarating exercise of mentally manufacturing their own images and actions for the words flowing into their brains. That mighty, miraculous muscle was essentially dormant, and the older the reading-deprived child was, the harder it became to activate their gray matter.

That, to us, is criminal. If reading dies, society will pay the price.