A couple of conversations I had this week and folding socks brought back a memory.
We were on a family vacation, staying for a couple of days at an Aunt and Uncle's house. My Mom volunteered us kids to help fold socks. While we were doing so we were talking to our cousins. My oldest brother told a cousin a few years younger than him "You learn something from every book you read, even if it is only I really don't like that book."
This bit of wisdom amazed me, perhaps just because I hadn't thought much about it previously. Earlier this week I talked to someone who jokingly (at least I hope it was jokingly) said that reading fantasy books teaches you about how dragons fly, or magic works. Granted you may learn that, but I think you can learn a lot more than just that. I have learned a lot about armor, weaving, and stone cutting from fantasy books, and trapping, history, and corn husking bees from historical fiction. And that is besides learning about human interaction and emotions, and good (or bad) writing from almost all fiction.
Nonfiction isn't the only way to learn.
Just last night I was a part of a conversation about home schooling. One mother was really worried about her son's fifth grade social studies grade. The other mother was explaining about all of the wonderful historical fiction novels available that would teach the colonial time period in a fun way without her son realizing everything that he was learning. You can learn a lot from fiction :)
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