Luther on card-playing, singing, dancing and... reading

Replace "card-playing, singing and dancing" with travel soccer, baseball and gaming, and Luther's concerns still abound.  

I wonder if the parents who spend the time, energy and money on getting li'l Franklin to his U-8 weekend soccer tournament in AcresonAcresofSoccerFields, Ohio, spend the same amount of time, energy and money on li'l Franklin's access to books, stories and human laps on which he can sit and listen to more books and stories.

"If we take so much time and trouble to teach children card-playing, singing, and dancing, why do we not take as much time to teach them reading and other disciplines while they are young and have the time, and are apt and eager to learn? For my part if I had children and could manage it, I would have them study not only languages and history, but also singing and music together with the whole of mathematics.  For what is all this but mere child’s play? The ancient Greeks trained their children in these disciplines; yet they grew up to be people of wondrous ability, subsequently fit for everything. How I regret now that I did not read more poets and historians, and that no one taught me them! Instead, I was obliged to read at great cost, toil, and detriment to myself, that devil's dung, the philosophers and sophists, from which I have all I can do to purge myself."   - Luther