Glenda Buckhalter has heard the statistics. As the Columbus Police Department’s public information officer, she’s intimately aware of the correlation between illiteracy, dropout rates and juvenile crime.
In an effort to help local youth, she organized the inaugural “Read Across Columbus Summer Program,” a joint partnership between the Columbus Police Department, the City of Columbus and Columbus-Lowndes Public Library. The program, which kicked off Monday at Propst Park, aims to offer twice-a-week reading programs at community centers and libraries across Lowndes County.
The programs will be held every Monday and Tuesday in July, from 9 a.m. to noon. Upcoming locations include the community centers at Plum Grove and Sim Scott Park and the Columbus Housing Authority.
Tuesday morning, Buckhalter beamed as she watched children stream through the door of Townsend Community Center and gather in a circle around Lindsey Miller, youth coordinator for the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library.
At each session, Miller starts with a few basic rules, then begins reading and getting the children engaged in the story by having them read aloud, answer questions and tell stories of their own. Story time is followed by songs and games which encourage listening skills, good manners and teamwork.
Although the library held reading programs at branches throughout the county in June, Miller and Buckhalter said there was a dearth of educational enrichment opportunities in July.
The Coalition for Juvenile Justice in 2001 reported 82 percent of prison inmates are high school dropouts, and more than one-third of all juvenile offenders read below the fourth grade level.
Johns Hopkins University researchers at the National Summer Learning Association in Baltimore, Md. have determined that by the end of summer vacation, students from low-income households have lost two months or more in reading skills due to unequal access to summer enrichment activities.
And even when opportunities are available, children are limited by lack of transportation, Buckhalter said. Parents may not have the time, money, or inclination to take them to the library, even if they want to go.
A reason for hope
Buckhalter decided to bring the library to them, taking advantage of the numerous youth who flock to area community centers to play sports and pass the time. She hopes it will spark a passion for reading and decrease juvenile offenses, which tend to rise in the summer.
“We want to give them something positive to do,” Buckhalter said. “If we can give them a reason for hope, maybe they’ll stay on the right path.”
The adults who read to the children often become role models for those who lack a positive influence at home, and Buckhalter said she’s glad police officers and city officials have been willing to accept that role. With strong backing from Columbus Police Chief Selvain McQueen and Columbus Mayor Robert Smith, she believes the program will be a success.
“I’ve worked with children in the past who felt as if their parents didn’t care,” she said. “They didn’t have a refuge. Reading is something you will carry for the rest of your life.”
Books provide more than just education — they provide the means to escape into another world, she explained. And the more children improve at reading, the more confident and empowered they become.
Breaking the curse
Townsend Park Supervisor Benjamin Porter is another proponent of education as a tool in the arsenal against juvenile delinquency. He has seen six-year-olds who can’t recite the alphabet, and he thinks “Read Across Columbus” is a good idea.
“A lot of kids, they can repeat everything they see on TV, but they can barely read or write,” he said. “When you have kids do something positive, there’s no time for the negative. If you teach them right, they’ll do right.”
Even though Niesha Rush takes her two daughters, D’Nashia Wilson, 9, and T’Nashia Wilson, 6, to the library once a week, she still brought them to Townsend for Tuesday’s reading program. She kept the Stokes-Beard Elementary School students in summer camps, and she took them on outings to bookstores, but she didn’t want to pass up a single chance to enrich their summer.
She takes education seriously, year-round, and her dedication has paid off, she said. Both daughters are good students and avid readers.
Her greatest wish is for them to have a better life than she had. Saddled with too much responsibility and scant emphasis on education, she says she felt she never got the chance to enjoy her childhood.
She’s heard the statistics, seen the results, and she wants to save her children from the cycle of poor academic performance, delinquency, poverty and other social ills.
“I do it because I know it’s very important,” she said. “I’m trying to break the generational curse.”
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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