about it when you turn on the news and
hear about double-digit unemployment and
stabbings in the school and public money
going missing and then the power goes
out you want to quit quit your neighbor
that’s gotten too violent and move
behind the gates quit your island that
offers no good jobs and move to the
capital or even quick the whole country
if only you had anywhere else to go hmm
or maybe you just want to quit caring so
much about a nation that seems lost but
you’re all still here and you haven’t
stopped caring so why haven’t you quit
because bahamian just aren’t quitters we
are a nation of survivors of fighters of
scrappers for the times of the luther
adventurers right through to today we’ve
eaten starvation piracy slavery and
inequality and we’ll beat this too we
will fight until this economy works for
everyone until our children attack their
exams instead of each other until their
future shines as brightly as the lights
which always stay on getting to that
writer feature requires accepting a
simple truth any lasting solution for
the Bahamas requires are more educated
more caring and more civic minded
population and that requires creating a
nation of readers reading makes a nation
great reading makes nation great because
those who read a lot know a lot and
their ideas grow an economy and enrich
us all reading makes a nation grade
because those who read a lot tend to be
happier and healthier readers feel more
fulfilled at work and more satisfying to
jump on our opportunities in life
readers are more often likely to play
sports they donate their time and money
more freely they are even more likely to
vote finally those who read a lot become
more empathetic and their compassion
and warrant creates a welcoming place
for us all taken together these effects
make a nation that is economically and
socially progressive a nation that is
protective and empathetic towards
minorities a nation most importantly
that is safe for us all now despite
decades of evidence of the power of
reading we like many other cultures have
an auntie reading culture and that’s
surprising because the evidence of the
power reading is right before us it is
an incredible competitive advantage it
starts in school kids who enjoy reading
read more often and because of that they
swore better in English than their peers
but they also get better grades in math
and science and general knowledge and
that makes readers more likely to
graduate high school and go to college
and college matters in the United States
college graduates earn twice as much as
high school dropouts college can even
keep our kids out of jail a northeastern
university study found that among high
school dropouts they were 63 times more
likely to be incarcerated in college
graduates 63 times if you’re a young
parent right now and you want to make
sure that your child never sees the
inside of a jail do whatever it takes to
turn them into a reader reading is
something that has been with us for very
long time but we haven’t fully bought
into it as a culture if you doubt that
see if you can finish the same for me if
you want to hide something from my
behavior put it in a day when everyone
in the country can finish that ugly
saying you know the problem is real yes
and where is this angie reading culture
godness our schools have atomized annual
average are we wise enough our Comment
shrinks and unemployment grows are we
wealthy enough crime and fair primer
record
eyes are being happy enough we suffer
from one chronic disease after another
are we healthy enough if we can imagine
for a second a Bahamas that has a
culture of reading a Bahamas where
parents can’t wake their shoulders in
the morning because they’ve been
spending all night under the covers
reading with flashlights or Bahamas
where we see readers everywhere on the
beaches and the playgrounds and the
streets can you imagine this new bahamas
being as angry and as frustrated our
current one what do you see a bomb is
filled with positive thinkers and doers
if we turn our newest generation of
Bohemians into a generation of readers
then we will create a wiser welcome
happier and healthier Bahamas now I have
really good news for you the key to
creating a generation of readers is as
simple as reading aloud in 1983 the US
Court of Education found that the most
effective way to raise student test
scores across the curriculum and across
the grades was to improve reading they
then took a further two years
investigating methods of improving
reading their conclusion the most
important factor promoting reading to
children was reading aloud to them just
reading aloud I always wonder if the
authors of that study got fired after
that two years and their best answer was
reading aloud it could it be that simple
couldn’t but since then we’ve learned a
lot about how humans learn we’ve learned
that the years between 0 & 3 are when
babies brains are drawing the fastest
and observing the most information we’ve
learned that babies and toddlers learn
best through loving interactions with
adults if you take a baby a place in
front of a TV screen without any adult
interaction at all that baby will not
learn a thing even if it is the most
educational channels
but if you take that baby and put them
on your lap and snuggles oh it feels
warm and protected and sink tumor more
tell them a rhyme or read to warrington
pictures he will soak up your words like
the desert soaps upgrade reading loud is
the best way we have of connecting the
pictures that maybe see with the words
of the hair that’s how babies learn
that’s how they build listening
comprehension of vocabulary or early
language skills and early language
skills protect your child scopa
Foreman’s long before they put on their
first school uniform shoulder with
better early language skills at age two
score better in IQ tests and reading
tests at age eight or grade 3 and by
grade 3 we can use reading level to
predict which children will graduate
high school and which will not a
University of Chicago study found that
fifty-five percent of Chicago third
graders are reading below grade level
failed to graduate high school so
creating a nation of readers and
academic achievers starts at home with
reading aloud to children but this is
the exact opposite of how we think we
think that education is the sole
responsibility of the schools where we
get bad results you blame the teacher or
blame the government or we blame the
children but sending our children to
school without sufficient early language
skills it’s like some in from our class
without a paintbrush and then getting
angry when they bring us back finger
paintings schools can continue our
children’s academic journey yes but it
cannot start it for us only the parents
or guardians have that power we started
the brighter Bahamas foundation three
years ago to give up free books in the
hospitals and to share this message of
the power of reading with parents and
we’ve been amazed how excited they are
to see that message parents like Harry
that they can directly impact the child
education even if they weren’t
academically strong themselves they’re
also usually relieved to hear that it’s
okay to feel a little self-conscious
reading aloud many people do it first I
short it in fact it’s even okay if you
can’t read because just seeing nursery
rhymes or telling stories all 42 the
pictures works just as well all over the
world book conventions like these get
great results because parents want
what’s best for the children they just
aren’t always sure what that is we’ve
got to make it clear to them consider a
lesson learned from Hurricane Joaquin
after walking past the southern family
islands had a clear problem to solve
they urgently needed food water and
supplies and Heyman’s responded in
record time they didn’t need to wait for
any government sponsored programs they
didn’t hire any fancy foreign
consultants they just did it all
themselves because when people have a
concrete way to help and they know their
help will really make a difference they
will help and help and help where we
show parents the connection between
reading aloud in their child’s later
yes sir you may worry that no matter
what the parents do kids these days just
won’t like books initially I was
concerned too but I was so wrong we
recently donated to a middle school that
had no school library out of ten
classrooms one at a classroom library
that had 30 tattered books now they have
700 fun books and those books are being
checked out every day the teacher wrote
that the kids were enjoying the book so
much that they were reading while
walking between classes and colliding
with the walls and each other I
immediately made a note to check whether
insurance covered reading related
and I also made a note to never
underestimate our children’s desire to
learn they just have to be given the
tools to make it happen we can all of
you something today to help create this
next generation of yours Paris you are
your child’s first and most important
teacher read to them every day and there
will be a year ahead of their peers by
the time they enter school a few minutes
and ninth is all it takes and keep
reading to them even when they first
started reading for themselves because
they’ll still be a while before they can
read the kinds of interesting stories
that you can read to them educators you
can increase the number of books in the
school and increase programs like
student quiet reading time by reading
time is proven to better reading
outcomes and the more times a week you
do it the better your results it’s also
important that teachers read during
primary time to everyone reads no
exceptions we know educators can help
too by becoming reading role models
bring a book with you the next time you
have a long wait like at the bank or a
doctor’s office let the next generation
of the him and see that yes the Heyman’s
do meet or support a community library
and consider making books your gift of
nurturing and developing better citizens
takes effort but it’s worth it consider
the time and money we spend now on
police corpse reform schools and prisons
wouldn’t it be cheaper and more
effective to intervene when the child is
young that door for him when he’s old
after all Fredrick Douglas said 200
years ago it is easier to build strong
children than to repair broken men
reading is how we’re going to build a
generation of strong children reading is
how we’re going to make our nation wait
so why don’t we quit because we have
just begun to fight we are a nation of
Fighters survivors scrappers from the
Lutheran adventures right through to
today we be in starvation piracy slavery
and inequality and we’ll beat this too
we are going to get to our brighter
future and that change is going to
happen in one generation our generation
we’re going to keep spreading the
message of the power of reading until
the day comes when if you still want to
hide something from a bahamian the last
place you’d want to put it he’s a new book