President's Viewpoint
The Greatest Gift

Let us all celebrate the joy of helping children and young people become enthusiastic and invincible readers.

NEA member and reading teacher Sharon Suskin suggested to us several years ago that we should do "something" about encouraging more adults to read aloud to children, because children who are read to at home are much more likely to become skilled and enthusiastic readers in school.

Well, we heard you, Sharon, and that "something" you asked for turned out to be an NEA-organized, national read-in on Dr. Seuss's birthday, March 2, 1998. We called it Read Across America, and everyone pitched in--K-12 teachers, education support professionals, retired and student educators, and higher education faculty and staff--the whole NEA family. And joining us were principals, parents, and policy makers.

We had high hopes for Read Across America, but to tell you the truth, it succeeded way beyond our wildest expectations. More than 10 million adults and children participated in that first Read Across America. The combination of that zany Cat in the Hat and celebrities reading to little kids proved irresistible.

So we did it again...and again. Last year more than 45 million participated in NEA's Read Across America, and the number of Read Across America events multiplied to include everything from community-led "Proud to be an American Reader" celebrations to book collections for children in homeless shelters, hospitals, and homes for abused and battered children.

Through all the hoopla, however, we have remained focused on NEA's Read Across America's duo goals: to encourage adults to read aloud to the children in their lives and to motivate young people to read on their own--not just this one day, but 365 days a year!

Reading opens the wonders of the world to our children. Reading ensures they will keep on learning, and reading will enrich their lives.

To sit with a child and read Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon is a pleasure beyond all measure:

In the great green room
There was a telephone
And a red balloon
And a picture of--
The cow jumping over the moon.

And as a young person, to lose oneself in a wonderful book such as Robert Lewis Stevenson's Treasure Island is worth a truckload of video games. As this year's Read Across America co-chair Ming-Na says, "I want to convince young people of the importance--and sustained joy--that reading can bring to anyone's life."

We want to provide our students with reading skills, certainly. We want to make them fearless and invincible readers, capable of taking on any text. But we also want our students to become enthusiastic readers. That is why teachers and education support professionals not only teach reading skills and comprehension to children, but the wonder of reading as well.

The Appalachian author Lee Smith, who also teaches illiterate adults how to read, says, "Learning how to read is like coming out of a deep hole. Learning how to read changes your life forever."

And NEA's Read Across America always energizes us--because as educators we are rescuers and life changers. We love books. And what we have loved, we hope others will love, and we will teach them how.

At NEA, we are dedicated to the proposition that a quality education is the fundamental right of every child in America--every child--and the foundation of a quality education is the ability to read for a lifetime.

Comments? E-mail Reg Weaver at RegWeaver@nea.org.