Lately I was watching a video on YouTube of an interview between Charlie Rose, who is a major U.S. tv interviewer and Eric Schmidt, who is the CEO of Google company, which everyone using the internet should know about.
Anyway, beyond my personal interests in learning about developments in the internet and technology areas, I thought it most interesting to listen to this guy, whose job is to work at improving the world through the introduction of technologies and applications that spread information and knowledge by making it available to everyone.
Well, to get to the point, in speaking about the educational and mental development of children in light of the present level of interruptions provided by the many sources of information, which in turn affect their cognitive or deeper thinking abilities, he said: “I still believe that sitting down and reading a book is the best way to really learn something.”
A little later he goes on to stress the importance of teaching children the importance of reading, especially from their early age.
Well, despite the fact that I don’t have children, that does not mean that I don’t think that what he is saying is right and to the point. Moreover, I believe that that principle holds true even for us a mature adults who are faced with the same influx of information from every side and who tend to lose our focus all to easily because of the increased level of interruptions in our daily lives.
In you want to listen to Eric again, go to the 54th minute of the video which is here: Eric Schmidt at the Celebration of Teaching and Learning.
