Parents failing to make the effort

Reading to children is something that is pretty close to my heart having two boys, one of which has just started school. So it was with interest that I read through the article in the Times today that reports that according to research from Pearson one in ten parents never reads to their children and it is the dads who are the most likely to be failing to read with their children. The tragic thing is of course is that if you fail to read with them when books are mainly pictures and very thin then how on earth are they going to discover the love of reading and have the interest to read alone thick tomes like Proust when they are older?
Pearson’s answer is to distribute a large number of free books to schools. The problem with that is of course it still doesn’t guarantee that once the books come home any of the parents will read them with their children.