"Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become."

C.S. Lewis  

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/literature.html#LYgVkBMavtZXIttM.99 

Literature is the art of writing words implementing your feelings, thoughts or ideas. As this quote of Lewis said, literature is one of the most important things in life to take advantage, and mostly enjoy. A very important part of literature would be the connection with the educational system, the question that a plenty of people ask is: Why we need literature in education? What is the difference between having it or not? Well, this are very good questions that can be very easily answered. There are 4 very important points Matthew DeCoursey said: Literature offers a very good way of teaching on reading skills, thanks to books we can learn how to write and also read, what this teach us is that the visual learning is a very good way to learn. Another point would be that literature is a very good way to link the intellectual part and the emotional part, In that way children can be interested in learning. The 3rd point would be that literature teaches values that the students learn during reading books and of what force do things are. The last point is that Literature is a very powerful way to change people's mind in many ways and send men to reality, to know what is happening right now and what would happen if the continue doing things. 

Read more about Mathew DeCoursey: http://open.salon.com/blog/matthew_decoursey