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2 I The Best Online Education System in the world
READING PROVIDES KNOWLEDGE THAT EMPOWERS PEOPLE
Kathlyn Q. Barrozo
Class of 1991, University of Santo Tomas
B.S. Medical Technology
Despite the fact that I have openly and repeatedly stressed to my children that knowledge is power and they
can get so much of both from extensive reading, today’s times have somehow served a hindrance to the
frequency, degree and variety of reading they can actually get. Aside from the internet, the only place where
they can (probably) get great reading material is the library. But who ever stays there to actually read a book,
anyway?
Private reading is seldom encouraged or allowed in book stores, save for one or two particular book store/s
where people can get comfortably seated while exploring the pages of whatever book that catches their fancy. I
guess it’s all a way of protecting the store owner’s best interests, (Who can blame them?) but I still believe that
the best way to get a customer to buy is to get him hooked on a few pages of a book. A cursory glance at the
cover, the book reviews and an excerpt from the story just won’t suffice to pique sustained interest. Experience
is the key, I prefer to think.
Admittedly, I too, have gotten into a reading rut, where my reading choices have narrowed down to: Yahoo
News; last year’s paper/magazines; and the back of food, supplement, medicine and drink packages. I take in
as much information as I can from the Nutrition Information, juggling my memory for familiar terms on the
package insert, or getting impressed at the many (??!!) helpful nutrients my family can get from this or that
product. By the way, did you know that the Recommended Energy and Nutrient Intake (RENI) greatly varies
between genders and is relatively dependent on one’s race? If that is so, then our race requires less energy and
nutrients to make it through the same 24 hours than other races do. Strange, but true.
Anyway, it’s virtually impossible, in today’s fast-paced environment, to get some reading done and add to your
arsenal of knowledge. Students from preschool to post-graduate school have to do their own readings based on
their own disciplines. Seldom can anyone get me-time to sit down and relax with a good book. Kindle and
other high-tech innovations will soon replace the hardbound/softbound typeset reading materials of old.
However, what is important in the accumulation of knowledge is not the amount or the frequency of stocked
up information. As long as you still find a small measure of joy at flipping the pages of some reading matter,
whether it’s a milk carton you’re turning over or the pages of an online flipping book, then the knowledge you
amass remains boundless.
Who knows, you might have read an extremely vital piece of information from a milk carton that could have
the greatest potential of saving the whole world. Knowledge is Power, right?
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
1.
Why is knowledge powerful?
2.
How do you accumulate knowledge?
3.
Do you enjoy reading? What materials do you like reading?
4.
What percentage of your day do you spend on reading? Are you satisfied with the amount of tie you
get to spend on reading? Why or why not?
5.
If you were a book, what would you be about? Why?