Books, the Portals to Infinity.

 Most High School Text books published in this country are written way above the reading levels of the standard High School student.  Academically the text book is written at a level that presumably the student is at during the presenting of the material in the book.  However, most High School students in this country read at about a 5 to 6th grade level upon graduation, and that level is declining.  

The average adult in the United States reads, if they are readers, at about the 9th grade level, but that to is declining as our students join the massive working class machine.  It seems that as people mature into adult hood so their reading levels improve, possibly due to this maturation if nothing else.  

School libraries have been whittled down to the main hub of technology driven devices like the Chrome Book, and other Lap Top computers as well as the repair and maintenance of these devises.  The School libraries are slowly down stocking their inventory of paper reading materials, books, papers, and periodicals, for the replacement reading opportunities that the World Wide Web offers from one of these electronic items.  

I am a lover of the old fashioned book.  I like the tactile experience.  I like the smell of a new book.  I like the feel of a new book.  I particularly like finding real old books that society may have forgotten about stashed in the back of a library in a hidden corner on a never dusted shelf.  This experience wakens the old Wizard in me and learning of historical documents begins.  Books are the stuff of magic, the stuff of legend, the stuff of the future, past, present, and what may or may not be.  Books are our conduits to places we would otherwise never walk unless we had the book to tickle our imaginations.  

It is a sad day when a school librarian looks you in the eye and tells you that the books are all being replaced by technology.  This has happened, and I quake in fear at the prospect of a society of people who have forgotten what a Book is.  

If you have a library of your own, as I do, protect it, read it, get to know it, and enjoy it.  When the Moral Majority appears at your door with torch and a can of fuel in hand fight them off with the biggest baddest book you can find and don't let them in.  For right around the corner lurks our Doom.

Peace and Balance,

John