I once read a message from a teacher claiming that kids need to be blessed with three points in order to learn to read well: a good teacher, support from home, and the “fire from within.” This teacher complained that educators could not be responsible for the latter two points, and therefore, should not be held accountable for producing poor readers. She expounded further on point three by stating that a teacher could not provide the passion to read if it did not already exist within the child. While I understood the importance of parental support, I was dumbfounded that a teacher did not feel she had the ability, nor the responsibility, to inspire children to want to read.
Passion is the force that drives Kids Need to Read and is the critical foundation of our success. Kids can be inspired to read if they are faced with an undying passion for it and provided with literature in which they can strongly relate. It is a teacher’s duty, a school administrator’s duty, a parent’s duty, a grandparent’s duty, and our nation’s duty to show children the magnificent power that this human-created gift will bring to their lives. The ability and desire to seek knowledge throughout a lifetime can change lives, communities, and civilizations. There is nothing more important to the success of humankind than the literacy rates of our planet’s inhabitants. A person can literally change the direction of their life in an instant, simply by reaching for a book and eagerly absorbing its knowledge. In the words of Sean Connery, “It’s that simple, and it’s that profound.”
Kids Need to Read is only four years old, but we have already “transformed” classrooms with the diligent selections of books we provide to our recipients, as well as through our caring communications with the leaders of the literacy programs we assist. Now we are instigating a “Reading Revolution” among middle school students through our partnership with Arizona State University. We consider it our mission to inspire children, and we work from the belief that we can. You can, too. We all can! It truly takes the passion within us all to help our children understand the importance and joy of literacy. Reading is not a natural process; it must be taught, and it must be taught well. The desire to read must also be taught. Believe it and live it — your children and your students will, too.
Sincerely,
Denise Gary
Executive Director
I got my break—big break—when I was five years old, and it’s taken me more than seventy years to realize it. You see, at five I learned to read. It’s that simple, and it’s that profound. I left school at thirteen, I didn’t have a formal education, and I believe I would not be standing here tonight without the books, the plays, and the scripts. – Sean Connery (accepting the AFI Life Achievement Award)
Article excerpted from Kids Need to Read 2012 Wall Calendar.
