A LITERACY EXPERIENCE
Washington DC – I have been following some of the discussion about the level of education in The Bahamas, in particular the constant barrage of complaints about the so-called “D” average. I say so-called, as I understand that to use that term is rather misleading, although it is evident from what I see on social media that there is a great deal to be done to bring the level of fluent literacy up to a better standard.
Having a little time on my hands I decided recently to volunteer in a literacy mentoring program in Washington DC. I didn’t realize just how deep the program went until I went for the first of what will be several training sessions.
The program is extremely well organized by AARP’s AmeriCorps/Experience Corps – which is very similar to the Peace Corps. AARP is the American Association of Retired Persons, and there are a number of programs that they run to help retired people get back into the work force, or find a niche where they can volunteer their time and feel that they are still making a substantial and useful contribution to society.
The literacy mentoring program is aimed at children who may be struggling to keep up or just need a little extra help to learn to read fluently. The program really serves two very important purposes. It enables the students to develop reading skills that will mean that they will do better in high school, be more likely to go on to tertiary education and get better jobs to elevate themselves socially. It also benefits senior citizens by improving cognition, physical and emotional health. Many seniors feel that once they have retired they are not useful and may become more and more isolated and lonely. Spending three hours a day, two or three days a week, with very young children has been proven to be of great benefit to the aging members of our communities.
I must say here that if you are going to do a job, you might as well do it well. I had to go through a vetting process to join the Experience Corps program. I had to obtain a police record, be fingerprinted, get a TB test, write an essay, and sit through an interview. A minimum of high school diploma is required. I feel quite privileged about being selected to work in this program. There are other requirements involved. Each volunteer is expected to log at least 300 hours during the school year, and to attend certain events such as one we will be doing next week when we will meet at the Smithsonian Castle and pack one million meals for seniors. Once the time quota has been met, each volunteer will receive a $1200 stipend to be used towards the education of any child or family member.
My training began in earnest as we sat in pairs or groups and learned how to greet our students (we had to role play at this point) and lead them in games that would help to improve their reading fluency, vocabulary, and understanding. I must say that AARP really knows how to encourage people to volunteer, as we were served a delicious breakfast with coffee and juice at 8:30am, and an even more delicious healthy lunch of salads and stuffed wraps at 1pm. Volunteers are also equipped with button down shirts with the Experience Corps logo, vests and bags stuffed with goodies like a water bottle, a small white board, and a binder full of instructional material. I think my favourite item has to be the children’s book I was given, entitled “If you give a cat a cupcake” by Laura Numeroff – a truly delightful story, beautifully illustrated – which will be one of the books I will be using for the preK students I will be assigned too.
It seems to me that this has to be a win-win situation for schools, students, parents and senior citizens. There is so much being said about how parents are not spending the time with their children doing homework, and that they are not attending PTA meetings and report card days. It was admirable that students were given tablets to use in school, but if literacy is a problem to begin with, an electronic device is only going to be of real benefit to those children who have an advantage in English language class. I am all in favour of students having devices – it is extremely important in this fast moving electronic age – but I am absolutely convinced that if children are not encouraged to read from real books at an early age, far too many of them will fail and fall into poverty.
Children who come from homes where parents are having to both work jobs where they are on shift schedules, making not much more than minimum wage, six days a week, are not getting the attention from their tired and stressed out parents that they need to start reading at an early age. Children who are being raised by a struggling single parent, or a grandparent, or live in a home where there is abuse, or a neighborhood where they cannot sleep because of loud music and noise all night long, are going to really have a hard time learning in school. I have spoken with teachers who tell me that it is really difficult to instill any knowledge into a child who comes to school tired, broken spirited, just too exhausted mentally, emotionally or physically to learn. I believe that a mentoring program such as the literacy program I am involved with would be a great way of turning these students’ lives around.
Teachers trying to work with these children are also tired and stressed and having a great deal of pressure put on them to produce better results. Seniors and retirees who feel that they have been “put out to pasture”, but still feel they have much to offer, would be a tremendous help. They would be there to help the students who are struggling the most, someone to encourage the students, and to spot when a particular child is in need of some extra help. The Experience Corps program in the US reaches 33,000 children a year who need this mentoring, as well as the senior citizens who volunteer to work with them. I am sure that it would not be long before schools would be turning out higher exam grades on a regular basis, and that this would be a program where money would have been well spent, without it having to cost a fortune.
