By Jake Tenpas
Night Rider columnist
Turning a kid into a reader can turn you into a dork, but it’s worth itI’m watching the second season of prison drama “Oz” on DVD right now, and administrator Tim McManus is trying to teach one of the inmates to read. This is no easy feat.
I mention this because I’ve spent the last school year working with a middle school student, trying to not only cultivate her skills, but also teach her the joy of reading. I’m not saying middle school kids are like prison inmates, but when I was in middle school, I know that it often felt like a prison to me.
Linus Pauling is certainly much bigger than Highland View was when I was there, but no matter how big the building, there’s never enough room. Wherever you go, there are other kids trying to figure out who they are, which usually means putting up a tough front to those around them.
Middle school was the Starter Jacket and gangster rap period for me, when I’d rather have been caught fighting by a teacher than reading a book by one of my classmates. I might not have been a thug, but out of insecurity, I tried really, really hard to make others think I was.
Schools in general have changed a lot since then, with acts of atrocious violence creating the need for stricter measures when dealing with student-on-student assaults. But while the number of actual physical attacks might be somewhat diminished, on school grounds at least, young people’s need to put up a wall between them and the outside world remains.
Reading has always helped me to both find truths introspectively and to connect with the world around me more empathetically. Putting yourself in other people’s positions can’t help but expand your perspective. More than that, reading is both fun and soothing for me. I read when I get up in the afternoon and when I go to sleep in the morning.
I don’t read because I have to, or for the educational benefit. I read because I love to read.
Recent studies have suggested that fewer kids are reading for the fun of it. Due to alleged increases in workloads at school, as well as the distractions of computers and video games and iPods, and even that relic the TV, kids simply aren’t making time for the written word like they once did.
A few years back, Theresa Hogue wrote a column about her involvement with the SMART program, or Start Making A Reader Today. As little as I volunteer, I thought to myself, “Yeah, that’s something even I could do.” So, when the opportunity to volunteer with the program Literacy Partners at Linus Pauling presented itself, I dove in, having no idea whether I would be creating another reader or driving one away with my pseudo-religious fervor for the activity.
Fortunately for me (perhaps unfortunately for her), I was linked with a very sweet and very smart student. She’s been involved with the school’s English Language Learners program, and while she speaks perfect English, her reading skills could use a little bit of a boost.
I’m not sure how I’m qualified to do this other than I’m willing, and sometimes in these cash-strapped times for education, that’s enough. I also like to think I have a great voice, and that I missed out on the era when radio serials might have put it to its fullest use. Growing up, I cracked my mother up with my impersonations of cartoon characters, and still enjoy the process of turning reading into a theatrical art. Whether it’s inside my head or aloud, it makes no difference, except perhaps for my student, who sometimes looks embarrassed — when other kids are around — that her reading mentor is such a total dork.
Since we’ve been working together, she’s reported improvement in her grades and standardized testing scores, which is great. But for me, just seeing her smile when we read a funny passage in “Super Fudge” or “Saffy’s Angel” or “The Trouble With Magic” is enough for me. Maybe someday she’ll help to defy the statistics by being a young person who actually reads for the fun of it.
Either way, I’m reminded each week — that’s the extent of my commitment, one hour out of every 168 — that even very simple books can provide new insights into the human condition, and that volunteering is something that anyone, even selfish me, can do. .
