A cure for illiteracy
By CHRISTINE DUFOUR
Staff Writer
BRAINERD,MN
A cheap miracle drug was unveiled this week to cure illiteracy in America.
It's not a pill you down with water. However, it is an inexpensive cure that takes only a few minutes a day. Jim Trelease, the author of the Read-Aloud Handbook, advocated reading aloud to children and teen-agers as a cure for illiteracy.
"Reading aloud is a cheap miracle drug that can change illiteracy in America," Trelease said after his speech to about 50 people Thursday morning. "If I didn't believe so strongly in this, there is no way that I would be traveling all over the country (speaking on the subject)."
Trelease spoke to about 1,300 teachers, parents, community members and business people during three presentations Wednesday and Thursday. That is a high turnout for a community this size before school is in session, Trelease said.
"It is a great compliment to the community, the parents, and their confidence in their school district," Trelease said.
Trelease was a journalist and newspaper artist for 20 years. He began volunteering in schools during his newspaper days. He realized while volunteering the change reading aloud to students could make on their outlook, their grades and their interest in reading. He began researching the subject and then wrote the Read-Aloud Handbook.
"I had the privilege of actually seeing the magic happen in the classroom," Trelease said, referring to what inspired him to write the book. "I saw what could be done."The perception that the intellect of Americans is decreasing is false, Trelease said. "There has been no decrease in IQ," he said, "but that is not good news because the world is not the way it used to be."
In 1942, the U.S. military created the General Education Development certificate to encourage young men to leave school early, join the military and fill the trenches, Trelease said. For the next 50 years, the U.S. military was the largest employer of people with GEDs. In 1993, the U.S. military outlawed the GED as an acceptable standard for acceptance. The military needed more educated people to run computerized heat- seeking radar missiles and other highly advanced technology.
"The world today is not the same one as yesterday," Trelease said.
Reading is an acquired skill, Trelease said. People are pleasure- oriented. People will withdraw from activities they do not like. If a child makes a pleasure connection with print, the child will continue to come back to read. If a child associates a displeasure connection with print, he will avoid it.
"Thus becomes the gap between the haves and the have-nots," Trelease said. If students can't read the material assigned in class, they fall further and further behind. The more they read, the more they know. The more they know, the more they grow. The smarter they are, the more they stay in school. The more they stay in school, the more diplomas they earn. The more diplomas they earn, the more money they earn in a lifetime. The more money they earn in a lifetime, the more health care they can afford to stay alive longer, Trelease said.
Trelease suggested people volunteer one lunch hour once a week to read aloud to a class, or read aloud every night to your children before they go to bed.
"I've just kind of knocked the ball in your court," Trelease said. "Pass the torch from one generation to the next.""Reading has been researched to death," said Mark Ronnei, president of the Nisswa Enhanced Reading Foundation and Grand View Lodge general manager. "That is where it falls down on us."
