Our attention was captured by this headline from The Globe and Mail: "Who goes to university? A clue: Have a dictionary?" Our parents had a huge dictionary (swivel stand and all) prominently displayed in the family room and not only did we use it for homework, we loved looking through it and, usually, reading the entries that had pictures next to them. Is the presence of a dictionary in the home really a predictor of future educational attainment?
Well, the article doesn't exactly claim that: "A dictionary is not literally the ticket to university. It's more like a symbol of what's going on in the family, and what kind of family the prospective student comes from." The author, Jeffrey Simpson, goes on to talk about parents' own education level and the value they place on education outstripping parental income as a factor in children going on to higher education. As one reader comments, "The dictionary of course, is representative of a home culture that values education and learning."
We suppose having Dictionary.com in your browswer bookmarks counts for something, but having an honest to goodness print dictionary easily accessible to children at home seems important. What do you say? Do you have one? Do your kids use it?
(Via: 123O'Leary; Photo by Jovike)
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We had a dictionary growing up that I remember laying on the floor and browsing as a child. I received one as a present when I went off to college. Even with the define: feature on most search engines, I still love looking up word in the dictionary, especially with my children.
view PNWGal's profile
My son is still an infant but as a result of both my husband and I being educators, our house is filled with all sorts of books including a dictionary. I would hazard to guess that most people reading this site and posting comments would have one.
view liverwurstontoast's profile
I loved our family dictionary - two volumes of the OED bound in burgundy leather with tissue paper thin pages. I wonder where that thing is now. We have a Dutch/English dictionary, but not a regular one. I use dictionary.com if I need a definition.
I was thinking the other day that when I was sexually curious as a kid, I looked up the words in the dictionary. Now kids can go on the internet and learn way too much - yikes!
view squirrelgirlie's profile
We had one and used it frequently. Quoth mom: go look it up!
It was wonderful for building vocabulary.
I still really, really wish I had an OED.
view JudiAU's profile
"We had one and used it frequently. Quoth mom: go look it up!" Same here! I still have my college dictionary from the '80s at work (and still use it fairly often), but come to think of it we don't have one at home. Now that I realize I need to obtain one, I am wondering if I should bother with a kids' dictionary or go straight to the adult version - anyone have any thoughts on that?
view LaneC's profile
My family had all the dictionaries. They got an old set of encyclopedias from an estate sale and I read every one cover to cover (Pluto was still called planet x).
As someone who marks the papers by first and second year university students, I would not recommend teaching children to use the internet for looking things up. All of my students have a hard time distinguishing truth from fiction on the internet. Books are so much easier to evaluate and understand
view Hollie's profile
I will be moving soon, into a much smaller house. Last week I started eliminating books: out went the foreign language dictionaries (Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, and Danish), plus Latin and Greek dictionaries and medical lexicons. Out went another dozen English language dictionaries of various ages, sizes and qualities.
I kept my Webster's Third New International which I bought in 1983, the two-volume Oxford English Dictionary that you need a magnifying glass to read (which I bought for a pittance at a used book sale), and a tattered Random House paperback that is held together with tape, and Elmer's glue.
I sent my son a link to this article and he wrote back:
"I wonder if dictionary abuse counts. "Look it up!" "Look it up!" "Look it up!" "Look it up!" "Look it up!" "Look it up!" "Look it up!" "Look it up!" "Look it up!" " ... repeated fifty times :) He was home-schooled, had a Navy career, earned two BS degrees, and is now working on his MBA. You better believe he used a dictionary.
view SunnyBlue's profile
I grew up with an old OED abridged with tattered pages. I have a Robert French-English dictionary, a Petit Robert French dictionary, Websters Encyclopedic Unabridged English dictionary, a Collins Cobuild English dictionary, and a couple of picture dictionaries both in English and in French. I've never counted them before, but I had no idea I had so many!
view jennifer_s's profile
What an antiquated notion. Google's "define:" function is completely sufficient. Let's not confuse correlation (i.e., having a dictionary is correlated with some measure of sucess) with causality (i.e., understanding what actually drives success - perhaps a family atmosphere of learning and inquisitiveness).
view rebeccac's profile
I love having a dictionary just because it makes my house feel homey to me, but truth be told I usually look things up online. I love when my kids ask me a question and we get to go look it up on the computer. If they want to know what causes tornadoes, we can wait a day to go to the library, or we can watch youtube videos of tornadoes, read encyclopedia articles about them and see diagrams. Then we go to the library and check out books about them.
view sar3j's profile
I grew up with one as did my husband. My neighbor boy (13) came over to borrow one from us. He needed it for homework. My husband suggested that he could use the internet for defining words. I think his homework was to use the actual dictionary as in to learn to use the thing!!!!
view jackied302's profile
We had two: an encyclopedic dictionary, and then a "kids dictionary" with colour pictures and easy language. They both got a LOT of love from my brother and I. :) I'm a history grad, and he's going into chemical engineering in the fall. Our parents definitely raised us believing in the importance of education, but also with a genuine love of learning, which I think is just as, if not more, valuable.
view teacupnosaucer's profile