Grow Readers to Grow Communities
By Mark W.F. Condon, Unite for Literacy vice president
Consider all the dynamics that go into the development of children who love to read books. Books that they choose and who become interested in sharing their ideas through writing heartfelt notes or creating drawings for loved ones and friends. Consider how such simple first steps can unquestionably create the foundations of a child's bright future as a member of a larger, literate community.
At its core, literacy is about sharing. Accomplished, mature authors and illustrators use their abundant literacies in hopes of creating an experience or memory that will contribute to others’ lives. Children, on the path to similar accomplishments, begin by taking the first steps in discovering the potential of sincere communication using print along with an expanding range of other media, like art, dance, theater and music.
Kids who gleefully share their daily accomplishments in learning to read and write provide abundant opportunities for neighbors and family friends to celebrate their accomplishments. Rushing into a room, book in hand, needing to know what a word means or waving around what will become an early draft of an important letter or piece of artwork, children signal their appreciation of the power of using various media and the role the rest of us can play in ensuring they progress in developing them.
The natural sharing and discussion by adults of their own learning to read and write, and/or of particularly memorable books, and reading and writing experiences, inserts literate activity into daily conversations, energizing everyone in a family or school classroom.
A friend shares a sweet note written by his daughter decades ago when she was in kindergarten. The response: “You’ve kept it for all these years? Isn’t that the sweetest thing ever! How’s she doing in her new job?”
Well, we don’t have to guess how the daughter is doing. She’s doing fine since she wrote that now-faded note, framed with little hearts and flowers. With the help of her friends and neighbors, she learned to find and enjoy personally appealing books, to discuss them with peers, her teachers, and her boss, as she mastered and adopted the language and insights the authors of those books have shared into her own self-expression. More deeply even, she adopted the uses of their ideas for reflecting upon her growing sense of who she was back then, who she had grown to become, and into whom she may blossom.
Literacy can serve as the accumulating glue that holds communities together and builds lasting paths to lifelong personal growth with enduring and multiplying strong relationships in life. When children grow up in families that treasure books and reading, they learn the value of deep discussions with neighbors and friends. Further, they are positioned to apply the rich information and powerful ideas available from this vibrant informal education to living a fulfilled life. With that foundation, in time, every child may find rewarding ways to contribute to their homes, workplaces and social communities.