What Finnish Children Read

During the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks in Finland, the foreign reporters exclaimed over the abundance of well-stocked bookstores and libraries there and the general interest in reading. As a matter of fact, in spite of its sparse population, Finland is reputed to have more bookshops per capita than any other country in the world. In Helsinki, for instance, even a one-day tourist from a cruise ship anchored in Helsinki harbor cannot miss seeing the Academic Bookstore. This modern copper-and-marble structure, designed by the world-famous Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto, houses one of the largest bookstores in Europe. It is not only a business enterprise but a center of culture. Its section of books for children and young people is enviable. But a wide range of books is also available for purchase all over the country, and people from all socio-economic levels take pride in book ownership.

Though this vital interest in books is not a recent development, since Finnish people have long been known as book lovers and book owners, outsiders are frequently so astonished by the vitality of the Finnish passion for books that they assume it must be a current fad. Reading is a way of life. One sees people of all ages reading on streetcars and buses, on park benches during lunch breaks or while watching children play in recreation areas. Last summer, I saw a young woman reading while she pushed a perambulator in a city park.

Finns also like to discuss what they have read. When I was visiting friends at their summer residence a short distance from Helsinki, one of the young daughters of the family wanted to tell me about a book she had enjoyed reading. So, there we sat on the pier, our feet dangling in the water, while she related the story. Almost immediately the story sounded familiar, yet its title was Kadun Hauskin Talo (The Street's Happiest House). It turned out to be The Moffets by the New Englander, Eleanor Estes. This child was but one of the coutless Finnish children who have shared their favorite books with me over the years.

No country in the world can boast a higher literacy level than Finland. When I was doing research on the methods and materials of teaching reading in Finland under church and state, an investigation which included a historical survey from the Middle Ages to the present and a modern field study, I discovered that during the centuries literacy has been considered indispensable for salvation and survival in Finland. The widespread literacy, which has been prevalent for some 300 years, has an interesting story, which can only be hinted at in this short paper.

The church law of Sweden-Finland clearly prescribed in 1686 that everybody was to learn to read, and in addition he was to learn a considerable number of religious texts by heart. Every year the clergyman in charge of a parish would call the people of each village to a lukukinkeri, the name given to the general examination in reading conducted once a year by the minister in a rural community. At these examinations, observance of the decree was checked. Every inhabitant over seven years of age had "to read both from within and by heart," and the reading ability of each was graded by a system of crosses and parts of crosses and recorded in the church books, many of which still can be seen in church archives. It was not uncommon for those who had not learned to read to be humiliated in various ways such as by being put under the table. For punishment, some stubborn, indifferent, and rebellious ones were ordered to sit in the stocks or on a so-called bench of correction and repentance during Sunday worship services and large church festivals.

The illiterates were excluded from Holy Communion, which in the concept of the day meant that those concerned could not go to heaven. If even this formidable threat proved ineffectual, the illiterate person was refused the authorization to marry. During the centuries, countless Finns contemplating matrimony met the ABC book...