Intergenerational exchange

 

Within our VECU Project we presented a questionnaire in schools (secondary school) to children of 10 – 11 years and to youths of 15 – 16 years regarding their reading habits. At the same time we presented the same questionnaire to older persons asking them to give us information on their reading habits. We had quite interesting results, above all we were surprised that persons of today 50 years and more had read the same genre of books in their youth as children of today.  However, our target group was pupils of grammar schools and high schools. We could not find out if the same results would be valid for pupils of elementary schools.

 

It was very difficult for us to win young students for our literature project. A young student came only one time to our meetings but she didn’t show up to the next meeting. Perhaps the older persons were too dominant for her?

 

We discussed together in our group how to transmit culture and the joy in books to younger and youngest persons. It was stated that reading aloud to children and tell them stories is very important for small children. (This is a good task for the generation of grandparents). The parents and grandparents should also recommend good books to the children. Almost everywhere there exist committed libraries where the literature for children and young people is encouraged. Since we are living today in a culture of the media it is also very important for children and young people to see good (television) films.

 

Some participants in the VECU project (Elisabeth Marek, Gerti Zupanich) went to publishing houses of children’s literature, libraries and exhibitions and informed us about children’s books and the trend in children’s literature. In our common opinion the only way to create grown-up readers is to make children love books when they are small.