Volunteer readers
HISD needs help — your help — teaching students to develop a love of books.
Albert Einstein was once asked how to raise smart kids: “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales,” he said.
“If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
But you don’t have to be Einstein to know that kids need to develop a healthy habit of reading.
That’s why New York Giants linebacker Devon Kennard, a passionate reader, started a book club to encourage kids to do just that, as reported by the New York Times.
He assigned the books the “The Alchemist” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” to his fans while he read along with them and posed questions to generate discussion.
Kennard may have been able to have a national impact, but anyone can sign up to help children learn how to read. Here in the Houston Independent School District, Read Houston Read connects volunteers with children. There’s no better time to sign up than the beginning of the school year.
“We will take as many volunteers as will step up and serve,” Julie Baker Finck, president of the foundation, told us.
Classroom instruction is paramount for young readers, but it’s also important for parents or others to reinforce what students are learning at school.
Unfortunately, hundreds of area youth have parents who work multiple jobs, or are busy running a household, or are absent, or have their own challenges when it comes to reading.
One in five Houston adults are functionally illiterate.
An army of private tutors would be the most effective way to coach struggling readers and wipe out illiteracy in the next generation. The cost would be prohibitive.
HISD lacks money, but we’re not wanting for manpower. Harris County has an army of baby boomers on the verge of retirement — 250,000 people over 65 years old.
Not every retired person will have an interest in tutoring, but with the first day of school around the corner, Houstonians with time of their hands should consider pitching in. We need the help. Most kids in Houston lack reading readiness skills when they enter kindergarten, according to the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation website. One in four students do not meet minimum standards in third grade and nearly half of youth fail reading and writing exams required for graduation on first administration.
While school districts around the state and country have been trying to tackle the issue of student literacy for years, broad progress remains slow to nonexistent.
On the state tests this year, Houston Independent School District students showed some gains in Math, but English scores were basically flat.
“We will be increasing our efforts around literacy at the elementary and middle school level,” HISD Superintendent Richard Carranza said in a written statement to Chronicle reporters Shelby Webb and Jacob Carpenter.
Our public schools are being stretched to the limits.
Not everyone can be an Einstein or an NFL linebacker. But anyone willing to step up can help pass on the gift of reading to the next generation of Houstonians.
Classroom instruction is paramount for young readers, but it’s also important for parents or others to reinforce what students are learning at school.