The World is an Open Book
By Emily Fisher
Reading for fun is something that has become practically nonexistent over the last decade, but that really is no surprise. Look at all of the things people can do instead. There are thousands of TV shows and movies at the click of a button on Netflix or Hulu, millions of games to play on your phone or the newest gaming console, and I’m not even going to get started on the billions of hours of music streaming. Of course, there is nothing wrong with any of these things. But I just can’t help thinking, reading is important.
In 2011 the U.S. Deputy Secretary Tony Miller said this in an address,
“One out of every four students that walks through the schoolhouse doors on the first day of their freshmen year in high school will not graduate with their classmates, if at all.”
Now, I know this statement may seem unrelated to what I’m talking about, but just bear with me while I tell you a story.
Shortly after I read this no less than depressing fact about the country I live in and the peers I went to school with, I attended a presentation by the United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra. Having attended multiple giving campaigns at my work in the past, I was familiar with United Way, but didn’t know a lot about the specific things they did for our community. It was a very lucky coincidence that I dragged myself out of bed to attend because they were talking about children reading at grade level and started with this statement:
“Nevada’s high school graduation rate continues to rank as one of the lowest in the nation and the cost to both the “drop-out” and the entire community is staggering.”
The similarity between this statement and the one I had ready earlier did not go unnoticed. Reading a statistic about the entire country can be a little hard to swallow, but as soon as it is a statistic about your own state, it becomes more real. The United Way linked this statistic to something really interesting…reading levels.
I just about lost it in the room full of silent, concerned adults. I couldn’t believe a presentation that I thought would be just like the one I attended the previous year turned into exactly the fuel I needed to write this story.
Strong evidence shows that there is a positive correlation between early grade-level reading skills and receiving a high school diploma. So it turns out that I am not just a crazy book-obsessed girl that believes reading can solve all of life’s problems, because both United Way and other organizations say that it actually can.
The fact that reading is important is not a new one, and I invite you to tell me if you have met anyone that doesn’t think reading is necessary. You need it to drive, to apply for jobs, to work, and to learn. But according to United Way, close to 75% of children in Nevada are not reading at grade level. Why? Well that is a simple question with a very complicated answer. The reality is many kids are choosing not to read not just because they don’t want to, but because they can’t.
Around age 8 is the time when a child stops learning to read, and starts reading to learn.
Tracy Fisher, the assistant principal at Lincoln Park Elementary School in Sparks, Nevada says, “There are a lot of reasons kids don’t read.” Yes, some of it is because of video games, television, and technology in general, but the problem is much deeper. Broken families, language barriers and inconsistency in a child’s life are just some of the factors affecting their education, and their ability to read.
“Some kids come in [to classrooms] and don’t even know that you read from top to bottom or left to right,” Ms. Fisher says.
This problem turned out to be a lot bigger than I had originally thought, and it made me sad to think that kids in my community weren’t able to find fun and knowledge in books like I did as a child. But, with every problem there is a solution and I knew that there had to be something going on in my community to combat this.
I had the chance to sit down with Karen Barsell, the CEO and President of United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra, to discuss some of the things they are doing to help solve this issue. In 2014, the board of directors at United Way did a community assessment in all 139 zip codes in our region and found that one of the most pressing problems in all 13 Nevada counties was “children reading at grade level.”
United Way estimates that around age 8 is the time when a child stops learning to read, and starts reading to learn. That is why it became United Way’s mission to “double the number of third graders reading at grade level by 2020.”
While this may seem too good to be true, United Way is doing a lot to try to reach this goal. One of the most important things they do is help strengthen families. Difficult times make it more common for parents to be worrying about feeding their family and keeping a roof over their head. That means there is less time for parents to teach kids the essential skills they need to develop early on in their life.
“Parents are a child’s first teacher,” says Ms. Barsell, “they need the skills to be able to be good at being parents, and it’s not tattooed anywhere.”
That is why United Way places so much focus on strengthening families. There is no instruction manual for parents, and as Ms. Fisher said “A lot of parents are afraid to come and say that they need help.”
Both United Way and individual schools like Lincoln Park have programs to reach out and help parents and families. Twice each year, teachers from Lincoln Park visit the homes of their students and just sit down and talk with parents about their goals for their children and their worries. Even though it may seem unrelated, strengthening families and relationships between teachers and families is one of the most important steps in helping kids be able to read.
It is not only United Way and Lincoln Park Elementary that are making a difference in our community to solve this issue. The E.L. Cord Foundation Center for Learning and Literacy (CLL) at the University of Nevada, Reno has also been focusing on supporting children’s literacy since 1964. Clinical tutoring programs, undergraduate teacher programs, and various outreach tutoring programs are just some of the ways they help. Local bookstores like Grassroots (a personal favorite) also invest a lot of time and money to help improve student literacy. In fact, in 2014 Grassroots raised over $16,000 for local schools.
While it does sadden me to read so many of the dismal statistics about children reading levels in my community, it is really nice to see so many people and organizations working together to fix a problem. Especially one as important as this.
I want the joy I feel when I watch my 7-year-old brother pick up a book instead of his iPod to be felt by parents and adults not just here in Nevada, but everywhere.
As Karen Barsell says, “Each and every little thing that is done can make a difference, the world’s an open book.”
Whether it is helping at home and reading to your little siblings every night, or going out into the community and volunteering, what may seem like a small effort to you is a huge help to kids. When people make an effort to teach children the joy of reading about things they love, and even to learn, the goal “double the number of third graders reading at grade level by 2020” seems much more attainable.
