articles 6 : preventing dementia

The Role of the Library in Delaying or Preventing Dementia  

My first reaction to this article was a bit of a giggle I must admit, especially as it opens with this quote from Bill Cosby  "My grandfather told me about senility, I'm not worried about that. My grandfather said, 'When you become senile, you won't know it." I was attracted to this article for several reasons, but the main one is because of the author being Stephen Krashen. Krashen  is a linguist, educational researcher, and activist, whose name came up quite ofen when I was working on a Linguistics degree many moons ago.    In this article Krashen looks at how literacy can prevent dementia in teh long term. He also touches on bilingualism as well as teh use of coffee as other ways to prevent dementia. Krashen makes us educators feel good in that he believes that when we help students become enthusiastic about reading, we are not only increasing their literacy and knowledge of the world we are also having a positive effect on their future mental health. Krashen feels the same about teaching students to read for pleasure in other languages.   His studies show that in this case again we are not only helping students become multilingual, we also are making an additional investment in future mental health.   This really struck a cord with me as I am a french as a second language teacher and have always encouraged all students to further pursue a second language even after graduating from school. Finally Krashen mentions coffee as being well-researched in its corollations with preventing dementia in adults.  Thankfully he acknowledges that when it comes to children and teenagers drinking coffee there is some controversy! A safe choice is apple juice, which also has long-term mental health benefits. (Chan & Shea, 2009) It may be obvious to some that being a lifelong reader is clearly beneficial to mental health, but its nice to see a reconfirmation that our promoting of reading is not all for nought.

Stephen, Krashen. "The Role of the Library in Delaying or Preventing Dementia." Teacher Librarian 38.2 (Dec 2010): 42-44. Print.