How Do You Create a Reader? Family Libraries, Cultural Capital, and Genesis of Interest in Reading: Statistical Analysis of PIRLS and PISA Studies in 20 Countries Over 15 years

There are no readers if the conditions are not in place for them to exist, although we are often content to think that it is an arbitrarily distributed gift, a kind of natural propensity. Statistical correlations, however, conclusively demonstrate the opposite: the influence of the possession of a family library and the set of associated cultural practices are decisive in developing children's reading comprehension, regardless of the country examined, its political regime, or the time it has been analyzed. The family library embodies a cultural ideal, a social horizon of aspiration, so that the genesis of interest in reading does not arise out of nowhere but depends mainly on the conditions that forge it. If educational policies and the promotion of reading do not take this into account, higher education will be satisfied with systematically reproducing the initial social condition by strengthening their academic convictions or designing ornamental campaigns that only convince those who are already convinced to read. On the contrary, evidence should govern educational planning and policies promoting reading.