Posts
 |
| Photo: Getty Images |
Divisive U.S. politics, Brexit, trade wars, distrust of foreign governments and the like polarize us as individuals and communities. The Us vs. Them rhetoric that colors public debate underscores the need to build bridges that take us outside our frame of reference and empower us to react with understanding toward those with different, even opposing, views. How do we see another side, another person, or another experience as clearly as we see our own?
In my work, I witness daily the transformative power of books. For children, books often create the first recognition of a self-identity — when they see themselves on the page, their culture and life experiences acknowledged or, even better, celebrated. When books reflect our own surroundings, when scenes and sentences resonate as authentic, then — as readers of any age — we internalize the message that our lives have value.
In a study led by the Laboratory of Language Dynamics in France, when the brains of participants were scanned as they read sentences such as “Jill grasped the object” and “Pablo kicked the ball,” the scans revealed activity in the motor cortex, which coordinates the body’s movements. When we read, we experience the neurological response akin to the action we are reading about, our brain presented with a reality that it reacts to in kind. Reading is the original virtual reality experience.
With that in mind, imagine the power of literature that forces us to wrestle with a new truth or alternative view of the world
Read more...
Source: The Hill
