Minorities At Risk For Drowning
Obama Honors Fallen Troops
A literacy program in Chicago has become part of the solution rather than the problem.
Open Books, founded by former businesswoman Stacy Ratner, began sending out volunteers four years ago to local schools in order to assist children with their reading and empower them to take charge of their lives :
"If you can't read the bus schedule, how are you going to get to work? If your kids don't know how to read, how are they going to grow up to have the kind of lives that they want to have," Ratner said. In the United States, just 33 percent of 4th graders are on par with their reading level or better, while 22 percent of adults are said to be entirely illiterate.
Ratner decided to do something about these statistics and has seen her volunteers grow to 3,000 and her book collection has ballooned to more than 50,000. Most importantly, though, the children touched by Ratner's program have seen a major improvement in their reading levels.
At the local Bronzeville Lighthouse Charter School, participating students have seen their reading speeds increase from 20 words per minute to 62 words per minute, and Ratner's strategy is simple: In addition to an online mentoring program, volunteers serve as tutors in the classroom. Students are required to both write and read in class, and for all the kids who volunteer to read their stories aloud, they get to wear a pencil costume.
The kids involved in this reading program are not only excited about reading but also enthusiastic about school.
With all of the talk these days about failing students and dead-end schools, Ratner stands as a beacon of light that should be followed and studied. She is only one person, but with her positive works, she has been able to impact more than 2,000 kids.
What a hero.
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Comments: (27)
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By: Blake on 4/19/2011 3:43PM
At least they'll be able to read their own arrest record in about five years.
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By: HoneyKone on 4/19/2011 7:13PM
Look people!!! Blake's desperate! Hahahaaa!!
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By: Sue on 4/20/2011 12:37AM
Or maybe going into the trailer park homes and explaing the difference between good meth and bad meth and the harm it does to one's brain.
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By: Donna on 4/19/2011 6:33PM
What the heck is on that little girl's head?
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By: mancha de platano on 4/21/2011 12:41PM
A I wanted to understand what that was on her head as well. Then I noticed she was reading off a paper, so it could be that she was in the play. They were rehearsing the play and the hat on her head looks like it comes from the book, the cat in the hat. I hope that's a good guess. Because it does look kind of strange. But that is New York City, and the parents would never allow for humiliation of their child. It would never happen not in New York, without an answer. And as far as the picture of this young child, the parents would never have allowed her to be humiliated to millions and millions of people.
So I'm hoping that my insight to New York City clears up any misunderstanding here. I am from the Bronx, and now live on the West Coast. So I do have a little bit of insight into something like this picture. Have a good day, peace.
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By: r on 4/22/2011 1:13AM
that is a pencil tip as part of the rest of the pencil costume. the article says the kids get to wear a pencil costume when they volunteer to read. it is not part of a play, but an incentive to read out loud. good for ms. ratner and the volunteers for ingenuity and selflessness in all their endeavors with getting kids to further themselves reading and being happy to go to school. it definately helps this nationwide epidemic of illiteracy in a "first world" country.
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By: HoneyKone on 4/19/2011 7:03PM
Fantastic story! This is the kind of thing that has Klan-like racists shivering in their sheets! They are afraid that once African-Americans and other minorities realize their full potential, they can no longer use their brainwashing techniques of belittling to destroy black pride and self esteem.
They are so desperate now, they respond to EVERY black story on the internet whether it's positive or negative with their tired tactics! LOL!
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By: ADMR on 4/19/2011 7:55PM
WOW
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By: Kendall on 4/21/2011 7:29AM
Your comment might make sense if black students were forcibly segregated into crumbling schools filled with unqualified teachers, but the truth is that the vast majority of black students spend their lives from kindergarten through high school in the SAME schools and the SAME classrooms with the SAME teachers as every other race and ethnicity...and these black students STILL FAIL to meet the same academic standards as everybody else.
And this is a problem caused by the person who RAISES them, not by the people who try to TEACH them.
This is why, in predominently black 'inner city' schools, the so-called students run wild and the personnel are relegated more to the role of zookeepers than of teachers...no discipline, no respect, and no appreciation of the value of education.
These qualities are learned in the HOME, and nowhere else.
So stop pointing your finger at the schools and the teachers and 'the system' and 'the Klan' and the white man and everybody else you blame for these failures.
If you REALLY want to discover what is keeping black children from reaching their 'full potential,' take a long, cold look in the mirror.
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By: HoneyKone on 4/21/2011 8:13AM
You have completely misinterpreted my comments. I did NOT "point fingers" at anyone except those that relish and find joy in the failure of black children to succeed. So, please don't twist my words.
BTW, I took a "long, cold look in the mirror" and I saw a parent who sent all three children to college, where the youngest still matriculates. My child attends a predominately white university and is ALWAYS on the Dean's List. I* am NOT the reason that black children don't reach their full potential. So, speak what you know, not what you ASSume.
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