Importance of Fathers

The CNN blog has an article on the importance of fathers in schools here.  I think it's an excellent article:

Yes, fathers need to read to children but, even more importantly, they need to read for pleasure themselves.

When I interviewed the avid readers in my high school classes, to see what common denominator I could find that had sparked their love of reading, it was clear with my boys that the common denominator was a father, or sometimes a grandfather or brother, who loved to read. 

One boy talked about staying up for most of every Friday night taking turns with his father reading aloud from his father's science fiction collection.  Another told me how his father had a large bookcase filled with comics, and they read them all together.  Another told me his grandfather had a large collection of fishing magazines that they read.  Another told me his father used to put him on his lap in the morning to read the box scores in the newspaper.  He grew up to love sports writing.

All of these boys were great readers, and great students, by the time they walked into my class.