As I wrote recently, reading has always been very important to me. I didn’t know when I wrote my post two weeks ago about my mother reading to me that November is Family Read Aloud Month, nor that the Kansas City Public Library is working with Mayor Sly James on an initiative called Turn the Page Kansas City, part of the Library’s Building a Community of Readers program.
The Turn the Page KC initiative is designed to get kids throughout Kansas City reading at grade level by the time they finish third grade. Currently, only 19 percent of students in Kansas City’s central school district meet this standard. City-wide, the proficiency level is only 33.8 percent. The Kansas City School District and many other metropolitan school districts have joined this initiative.
Mayor James says:
Investments in people are far more important long term than investments in buildings and equipment. If we are to be a city that fully takes advantage of this moment, then we must be a city that recognizes that education is an economic development issue.
For Family Read Aloud Month, the Kansas City Public Library encourages families to read aloud to one another for one hour every week throughout November 2012. Sounds like a wonderful idea.
So find a kid . . . or two or three . . . and spend a few minutes each day reading out loud. Read to the child. Have the child read to you.
If you don’t have a child available, adults can read out loud to each other also.
Will you participate? If you do, post a picture on the Kansas City Public Library website.
P.S. Read to your kids, even if you don’t live in Kansas City.
