Posted by Robin on 2/10/2008, 3:42 am, in reply to "Re: Your support for reading is needed."
71.28.209.106
If it were not for my local library and that beloved bookmobile, I doubt that I would have become an English teacher...Bookworms unite!!
:
: --Previous Message--
: I am forwarding this blog entry from author
: Lauried R. King (www.laurierking.com). I
: know you all are passionate about reading
: and I urge you to help support this program
: that costs so little and gives so much. I
: bet if Charlotte Bronte were here, she would
: support it, too!
:
: * * * * *
:
: Reading is FUNdamental (by Laurie R. King)
:
: February 9th, 2008
: When my kids were small, I was very active
: in the Home and School club, like the PTA
: without the national clout behind it. This
: school was one where white faces were very
: much in the minority, where my two enrolled
: in Spanish as a Second Language by just
: walking into the classroom. Which is, I will
: say, a very effective way of teaching a kid
: how to be a citizen of the world.
:
: This being a rural, agricultural area, a lot
: of those Spanish-speaking kids were the
: children of farmworkers, and a lot of them
: were poor. Many of them would be the first
: generation of their families to graduate
: from middle school, much less high school. A
: fair percentage of the students had parents
: who couldn’t read, in any language.
:
: Into this setting comes the RIF program.
: Because so many of our kids were low income,
: three times a year, Reading is Fundamental
: would truck in masses of books, and let each
: and every student in the school choose one
: to take home. To keep. For their very own.
:
: My two, of course, were a bit blasé about
: the idea, since by the time they entered
: school their rooms had groaning bookcases of
: their own. It was difficult to get across to
: them that some of their classmates not only
: had no bookcases, they had no books. None.
: Until RIF came to town.
:
: I loved to volunteer for RIF days, just to
: watch the kids. We would start the day by
: setting up the tables in the cafeteria,
: laying out the (mostly) cheap paperbacks by
: reading level, debating each time about the
: placement of Spanish language books: should
: we put all of those together, or mix them in
: with the others? Some years we did it one
: way, some the other, it didn’t seem to
: matter much. And then we would stand back,
: and the teachers would begin bringing their
: classes.
:
: The older kids, of course, were old hands at
: this, and made right for the thick books,
: wanting as much heft as they could get.
: Dictionaries were especially popular, even
: though some of us RIF moms (very few dads
: volunteered for RIF days) would gently ask
: if they wouldn’t rather have a story book.
: Each student would be given fifteen minutes
: or so to choose one book, then would bring
: it to us and we would either have them write
: their name, or write it for them, so as to
: save arguments in the classroom later.
:
: And off they would go, high as kites and
: clutching their books to their chests. To
: take home. To read on their own, or to their
: parents.
:
: It was the younger kids who would make a
: hardened volunteer mom get a little choked
: up. Kindergarten and first graders would be
: ushered in, rather confused, and stand
: staring at these objects strewn around,
: nose-height to them. The teacher would
: explain, usually in two languages. The
: students’ eyes would get big, and they would
: look at each other doubtfully. Books sure,
: they understood books in the classroom or
: even in the library, but mine? For me? To
: carry home? To put my NAME in?
:
: Wow.
:
: Now, you know there’s going to be a point to
: this post, don’t you? Yes. And here it is:
: The federal budget proposed by President
: Bush for 2009 will eliminate RIF. Sixteen
: million books won’t go to low-income kids.
: Sixteen million times, a ten year-old boy
: won’t gleefully snatch up a two inch-thick
: paperback Spanish-English dictionary as the
: biggest book on the table. Sixteen million
: times, his six year-old sister won’t fall in
: love with Steven Kellogg’s silly drawings,
: and read them over and over. Sixteen million
: times, a moment of joy that opens a door
: won’t happen.
:
: Please go to the RIF page and take a couple
: minutes to contribute an email request to
: Congress, or print their form to write a
: paper letter of your own. RIF is important,
: to five million of the kids who need it
: most. It doesn’t cost much, when it comes to
: Federal programs, and it makes a huge
: difference.
:
: For me, please? And of course, for them.
:
: The address is
:
:
:
: http://capwiz.com/rif/issues/alert/?alertid=10932481
:
: * * * * *
:
: Thanks.
:
:
:
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