Where It's Happenin' This Summer:
Your Public Library, Perhaps?
Remember
those top scholars honored recently in The
World-Herald, mainly for how well they did on nationally-standardized
college admissions tests?
Well,
a lot of the reason for why they are where they are probably has to do with
spending time under a shade tree with a glass of lemonade during the summers of
their childhood.
Doing
what? Reading!
Children
who get the most out of school are those who have read the most. It's a key
reason why year-round schooling is a bad idea: there goes a child's free time
to self-educate through self-selected library books, with a block of time in
the summer to read them.
Here's
the general idea: children should concentrate on "absorption" in Grades 1-4 -
reading as much as they can to take in as much knowledge and as many vocabulary
words as they can, the building blocks of comprehension. From Grades 5-8, they
can move to "critical thinking" - books that challenge them and feed their
natural inclination to argue and evaluate. Then, in the high school years,
they'll want "expression" - books that express points of view, and help them
learn to form and express their own.
Without
this progression, it is difficult, if not impossible, for a youngster to "ace"
school and those important standardized tests. And most of all, a self-directed
education through outside reading is the best way to shape your own mind,
instead of leaving that to the whims of educators whose values and interests
might be vastly different than your own.
Wise
parents make sure children use the summer months to build their vocabularies
and knowledge bases the cheapest and best way of all: reading library books.
And Nebraska's public libraries have started another summer of reading incentives.
Wise parents (and grandparents, and caregivers!) have their children enrolled.
This
year's program theme has to do with animals: "Paws, Claws, Scales and TALES!"
The way it takes shape at the Elkhorn Public Library, for example, children sign
up for the program, and take home a sheet with little clocks to color to keep
track of your reading time. As soon as you've read for eight hours, read to
others, or been read to, you can turn the sheet in, and choose a reward.
They
include certificates for a free kid's meal, swimming pool passes, Royals
baseball tickets, skating rink passes, and other treats. Each week, there's
also a standard reward, such as a book bag, bookmark, and a summer-end medal or
trophy.
To
keep kids coming in all summer, Elkhorn has prepared a calendar of storytimes,
a discussion group on The Chronicles of
Narnia series, and special events for kids following the animal theme,
including a raptor show, dog day and other offbeat activities.
For
more on the summer reading programs going on across the state, see:
http://www.nlc.state.ne.us/libdev/summerreading/sumread.html
Also
note this important event planned at the Norfolk Public Library:
12th
Annual Literature Festival, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 29, Northeast Community
College Lifelong Learning Center; contact Karen Drevo, kdrevo@ci.norfolk.ne.us
Also
see www.nebraskareadaloud.org
and www.nebraskalibraries.org/golden/sower.htm
