He talks as though someone who is humiliated about something or does something wrong and gets punished for it in some manner will most likely never do it again. That goes for reading as well. Being pushed over and over to read excessive amounts or write long essays they will either A) love it or B) hate it. Once a young child hates something they will fear it for a very long time. Holt uses info from one of Mark Twain’s quotes; “Mark Twain once said that a cat that sat on a hot stove lid would never sit on one again, but it would never sit on a cold one either. As true of children as of cats. If they, so to speak, sit on a hot book a few times, if books cause them humiliation and pain, they are likely to decide that the safest thing to do is to leave all books
He talks as though someone who is humiliated about something or does something wrong and gets punished for it in some manner will most likely never do it again. That goes for reading as well. Being pushed over and over to read excessive amounts or write long essays they will either A) love it or B) hate it. Once a young child hates something they will fear it for a very long time. Holt uses info from one of Mark Twain’s quotes; “Mark Twain once said that a cat that sat on a hot stove lid would never sit on one again, but it would never sit on a cold one either. As true of children as of cats. If they, so to speak, sit on a hot book a few times, if books cause them humiliation and pain, they are likely to decide that the safest thing to do is to leave all books