ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 30, 1996 TAG: 9608300019
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-14 EDITION: METRO
THE ABILITY to read opens doors to almost all learning, and is fundamental for schoolchildren studying virtually every subject. Sad to say, too many Johnnies still can't read. Some, incredibly, are functionally illiterate when they graduate from high school.
Is President Clinton's reading initiative the solution? He proposes to dispatch an army of 30,000 reading specialists and volunteers, ``America's reading corps,'' to help improve reading skills of children, kindergarten through third grade. ``All of America's children should be able to read on their own by the third grade,'' he says. Few could argue with that.
Clinton's literacy program would cost $2.75 billion - part of the $8.5 billion grab-bag of goodies he strewed to voters during a four-day train trip to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The reading initiative, which envisions his new army joining with PTAs and other community groups as tutors, would include $300 million in grants to teach parents how to help their children read.
No doubt many parents could use assistance. The 1993 National Survey of Adult Literacy found that 40 million adults can't read or write; another 50 million adults barely can. It is widely known that reading to preschoolers works wonders in developing their interest in reading. Children whose parents can't read to or with them are disadvantaged when they start school.
Even so, it must be asked: Why haven't America's public-school teachers been able to deal with this problem? If, as Clinton claims, 40 percent of third-graders can't read at the basic level, something must be amiss in the classrooms.
Part of the problem seems to be that many parents don't take the time, or are too harried, distracted, tired or something else in the evenings to help their kids learn to read. (They certainly won't learn by watching TV.) If that is the crux of the problem, then the better answer would be for children to begin school at the age of 4.
Illiteracy is a huge problem in a society entering the Information Age. Mobilizing an army of literacy volunteers is a fine idea. But the focus should be on schools to do the job.
LENGTH: Short : 44 linesby CNB