Community taking steps to show value of reading

October 4, 2010 by Wayne Harris

An editorial reprinted with the permission of The Daily Advance

There is a quotation attributed to an anonymous teacher: “If you can read this, thank a teacher.”

Though that may sound slightly self-serving, it speaks to the importance of reading comprehension in the school curriculum to ensure our children are successful in the classroom and in life.

The ability to read enables students to do well in virtually all other subjects. It opens minds and doors.

Unfortunately, many students struggle with reading. Test scores in reading proficiency remain lower than state and national benchmarks in the Elizabeth City Pasquotank Public Schools.

This year, a concerted effort is under way in the district to ensure that elementary students will be able to read at grade level by the time they reach the third grade.

This effort has resulted in a convergence of events that is bringing school administrators and teachers together with community volunteers to work one-on-one with students to improve their reading skills.

School Superintendent Linwood Williams deserves the credit for initiating the first step in this effort by placing a priority on reading in ECPPS. The district hired Karis McDonald in the role of Director for Reading and Community Outreach.

Meanwhile, the Elizabeth City Monday Rotary Club decided to organize a service project that would pair volunteer Rotarians with elementary school students and focus on reading. The club’s service committee chair, Sharon Tanner, CEO of Albemarle Hospital, worked with McDonald to set up the program called Rotary Reads.

Thirty Rotarians (and nine back-up volunteers) will provide 30 minutes of reading assistance each week in the district’s three elementary schools. McDonald completed the volunteers training sessions this week. During the training, she stressed the importance of children seeing adults reading. To create that opportunity, Karis has asked community members to read aloud from a favorite book on Channel 8, the district’s cable television channel.

The district has long had the HOST program, Helping One Student to Succeed!, which pairs community volunteers with individual students to help them with their studies. Rotary Reads will dovetail with that program.

It’s refreshing to see the district embrace community volunteers who are eager to help improve ECPPS.

The collaborative effort of school administration, teachers and community members not only promises to make a real difference in the reading skills of ECPPS students but it also paves the way for more partnerships that can support the efforts of the district’s educators.

If Rotary Reads proves successful, perhaps a rewrite of the teacher’s quote will be in order: If you can read this, thank a teacher and a Rotarian.

Coincidentally, Sept. 25 — Oct. 2 was Banned Books Week, the only national celebration of the freedom to read. The American Library Association launched the effort in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, libraries and book stores. Since then, it is held annually during the last week of September.

Several local libraries and bookstores, including the Perquimans County Library in Hertford, Shepard-Pruden Library and Garden of Readin’ Used Bookstore in Edenton and independent bookstore Page After Page in Elizabeth City celebrated Banned Book Week with displays of books that have been challenged and information about the celebration.

According to the library association, the list of books that were banned or attempted to be banned in schools and libraries includes “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, by Mark Twain; “Beach Music” by Pat Conroy; “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger; “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult; “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker; “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee and “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou.

Can too much attention be paid to reading and literature? We think not.

As Angelou said, “When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature.

“If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.”