Reading newspapers may seem out of fashion to today’s generation. In the digital age, the news is available at the tip of one’s fingers. However, I strongly feel that newspaper reading for students as a habit has some surprising benefits for students especially if cultivated at a young age. Here are 8 of them.
Over time, we have come to prefer curated news that caters to our specific interests. the traditional newspaper format with 12 to 24 pages with a page each dedicated to different regions starting from local news all the way up to global news and a few additional pages dedicated to opinions, sports, business seems so superficial.
However, newspaper reading for students plays such a prime role during the formative years.
- Pot-pourri of News: The traditional format is an excellent blend of different sections that help students develop a wide variety of appeal for different topics
- Vocabulary BigBang: It lends to improving a student’s vocabulary, especially in the 11-15 year period when a student’s vocabulary has the potential to balloon to 5 times.
- Exposure to Writing Styles: Presents different writing styles to the student reader. This in turn switches on different creativity modes.
- Improves analytical ability: Increases their ability to analyze news from different perspectives.
- Consumption Appetite: The physical format also lends itself very well to the reader who wishes to gauge what percentage of the presented news is getting consumed by them.
- Improves General Knowledge: A daily newspaper and the news article writing style ensures that no person feels alien to a piece of news being presented. Every article is powerhouse of general knowledge.
- Conversation starters: The enormous information on current affairs that a newspaper provides gives students lot of conversation starters to open up with somebody. It also lends the person an interesting magnetic appeal.
- Indispensable for Civil Services Exams: Any serious Civil Services Exams aspirant (IAS, KAS, etc) will swear by the habit of newspaper reading as indispensable to cracking these exams. Wide reading gives a potent edge to aspirants in the interview selection rounds.
On a final note, these 8 benefits of newspaper reading for students should prompt every family and school to subscribe to newspapers and get students to develop this essential habit. Catch them young! Here’s how you can get your kids to start reading newspapers.
Additional Reasons to get Kids to read Newspapers can be found here and here
