From August 26 to September 4, at the Palace of Congresses and Exhibitions of Toluca, the International Book Fairin its 2022 edition. On this occasion, The Sun of Toluca joins in the effort to promote reading, by distributing copies on various subjects, in addition to informing participants about the nature of their work.

In a country with our conditions, where one of the retarding factors is directly linked to the ignorance and low schooling of millions of its inhabitants, it would help a lot if the task of reinforcing this habit had the support unified of all organizations. In the case of the official sector, instead of the typical opportunistic and demagogic discourses, the question must be approached seriously, taking into account that the advantages in the intellectual development of the individual do not only consist in increasing the culture and strengthening intelligence, but also to achieve freedom and exercise it with a greater awareness of being rational.

The Ministry of Public Instruction itself (SEP) recognized the failure of the system from the basic stages of the student, because due to indifference or rejection of reading, seven out of ten students do not read correctly, and as a result their levels of comprehension are very weak.

Recent figures from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) mention an average of 3.9 books read per year per person, although studies OECD and the UNESCO put the figure at 2.9, quite far from the 17.5 reported among Canadians, for which Mexico ranks 107th among 108 countries analyzed. According to the surveys, the distancing of writing is mainly caused by the lack of time, interest or money, by the preference to exercise other activities or because of health problems.

The arrival of new technologies The table degrades, when a large number of users adopt them even compulsively, until they become an essential part of their daily lives. Author Nicholas Carr exposed, in his book Trapped, an unfortunate reality of electronic devices, being designed to divide attention so that when using them, the mind wants and needs to receive and broadcast information in short, rapid, uncoordinated bursts that encourage shallow reading, hasty, distracted and superficial thinking; the ability to think is affected and the operator is forced to rely more and more on artificial memory.

Numerous investigations have shown that the habit of study, of attachment to good literature, is a direct function of expressions of a superior aptitude for language, coupled with an autonomous, creative and critical intellect, by reinforcing neural connections and with it by modifying the organization of the brain, favoring the abilities to feel, deduce and understand. Although being a regular reader does not immunize us against degenerative diseases, it does increase cognitive reserve; i.e. making mental deterioration a slower process.

Obviously, in this plundered and very undemocratic nation, the reasons are accumulated to build an educated society, well aware of the political reality; active and independent, determined to improve public affairs by combating the hypocrisy of this populist, mediocre and corrupt ruling caste, sheltered from the daily repetition of false and perverse propaganda.

Civil engineer, full-time professor at UAEM.