We analyze together some data that we have on the reading frequency in Italy, the mental development of children, and try to understand if it could affect their eventual sporting career.
1.
- In Italy in 2012, over 26 million people from 6 years and more have read at least one book, for reasons that are not strictly educational or professional. Compared to 2011, the share of book readers remains stable (46%).
- Women read more than men: in the year one book has been read by 51.9% of the female population compared to 39.7% of men. The difference in behavior between the sexes begins to manifest itself as early as the 11 years and tends to decrease after 75.
- Having parents who read encourage to read: 77.4% of boys aged 6 to 14 years with both parents readers, compared with 39.7% of those whose parents do not read.
- In Italy, even those who read, read little: 46% of readers read more than three books in 12 months, while the “strong readers”, with 12 or more books read at the same time, are only 14, 5% of the total.
- One family of ten (10.2%) do not have any books at home, 63.6% have a maximum of 100.
2.
- The Nobel Prize for Economics James Heckman has shown that children of unemployed in kindergarten possessed a vocabulary of 500 words, those of parents of low-skilled 700 words, while the sons of the graduates came to 1100 words. Unfortunately these differences persist even in later allowing to predict well in advance the career, income, family stability and health condition. Therefore it need educational investments such as to develop the cognitive and social skills in children from 0 to 5 years, and also in later life.
- Novak Diokovic wrote in his book: “Jelena made me listen to classical music and read poetry to calm down and learn to concentrate (Pushkin was his favorite poet). My parents, however, spurred me to learn languages, so I learned the ‘English, German and Italian. the tennis lessons and life lessons were one, and every day I could not wait to take the field with Jelena and learn more and more on sports, on myself and on world. “(p.5)
It is not hard to understand from these data and evidences what it should be done to educate young people and that sport would benefit from an education centered on the development of reading. I am convinced that the absence of sport culture found in many countries derives precisely from this kind of ignorance and of which many young people are paying for, ruining their lives well before adulthood.
