Child Reading A Magazine Poem by Donal Mahoney

Jack, age 6, loves the iPad he uses in kindergarten. He already navigates the net to some degree. But when he accompanied his father to the Post Office, he sat quietly on a bench and read something in print while he waited, no electronics available to distract him.

Jack was caught in the act by his father, armed with a cell phone, who sent the photo immediately to his grandfather many miles away. The grandfather, as usual, was sitting at his computer, typing away, no print nearby to distract him.

The grandfather sent children's magazines to Jack but in kindergarten the boy has become electronically mesmerized. Magazines don't have the same appeal.

HIs iPad offers action, moving parts, and that understandably appeals to a child who would rather see a giraffe eat from the top of a tree than read about the giraffe doing it in print.

No poetry or fiction at the Post Office so who knows what caught Jack's attention but there are words among the graphics he's looking at on paper rather than on a screen.

The grandfather from infancy on was suckled on print but now in his dotage he takes nourishment at a computer.

So who is he to worry about Jack not reading newspapers and magazines. The boy's only 6.

Times change, the grandfather must remember, and generations must adjust.

He once read four newspapers a day in Chicago. Now he reads the one newspaper published in St. Louis.

Print publications may be terminal.

At the Post Office, however, as young Jack discovered, print is still breathing.