What No Bedtime Story Means Summary

In “What No Bedtime Story Means: Narrative Skills at Home and Schools,” Shirley Brice Heath explains the advantages and affects of reading bedtime stories to children. Heath exemplifies the affects of reading bedtime stories to children, by comparing and contrasting kids from different families and communities. For the first child, the family viewed bedtime stories as a necessity. Through the readings, they believed that the child would grow up having an advanced vocabulary and would learn how to speak quicker than other children. From such an early age, these children were trained to listen to the storyteller, and to only speak when the teller required it out of them. Heath noticed that these children didn’t face much trouble in their school
career. These children knew how to analyze the readings, answer questions, and how to follow orders, because they had learned similar skills at home. Yet, when these children were asked to think critically or to use their imagination to connect the story to real life scenarios, they would not know how to respond. In contrast to the first family, the second family would not read bedtime stories to their child. Heath noticed that since these children did not acquire language through books, they would rely on the conversations of the adults to learn words. Instead of focusing on learning the meanings of the words, the children would focus on the pronunciation of the words (they would repeat the words they heard). When attending schools, these children were more creative (make up stories), but they wouldn’t comprehend the meaning of stories. Because of this, these students often faced trouble when attending school and cause them to stop attending.
Similarly to the second child, my family did not read bedtime stories to me. Out of all my family members, I was the first one to attend college. Although this is true, I believe that Heath’s analysis only partially explains why my family was and/or is not “college material.” I do believe that there are some benefits in reading bedtime stories to a child. Yet, I also believe that schools officials and administrators should not expect and/or assume that all parents read bedtime stories to their children. Assuming that all parents read bedtime stories to their children only benefits some and excludes the rest of the children. Teachers should take time to teach students how to comprehend the meaning of the stories they read, let them know what they expect of them as a student, and be patient and open to the learning style of each child.