Cindy Pham
E375L – P2B
Literacy in Our Schools
Oh
the wonderful power of literature: you have the ability to take me places far
away from reality and make my life feel complete! My love of books began
through a program I mentioned before called B.E.A.R. Night. This program
allowed students to attend an in-school lock-in and play games all night if
they read the required number of book pages. Another program that was used to
encourage literacy was R.A.B.D.A.R.G.A.B. (Read a Book, Do a Report, Get a
Buck). This program allowed children to get rewarded for reading. They
broadcasted commercials throughout the
I am very thankful
for these programs and others like them for allowing me the opportunity to discover
my passion, especially so early in my life. Most people don’t even get the
chance to find their passions until much later in life and miss out on years of
enjoyment. Unfortunately these programs that were intended to promote a
literate
Literature in Our Schools aims at encouraging elementary
students to read and develop positive attitudes towards books. We want to
prevent the stigma that reading is a negative hobby from affecting children. We
would work with elementary schools to establish Read-A-Thons, in-school lock-ins
where entry is gained only by reading a certain amount of pages. Literature in
Our Schools would run this program during the fall school year and give
students two to three months to read a predetermined amount pages. I want to
measure the students’ progress with pages instead of the amount of books they
read because, as Thomas Carlyle’s believes, “All that 
mankind has done, thought, gained, or been,
is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.”[1] However, since I am not sure how many pages the average
elementary student reads I can only outline numbers and work from trial and
error. To gain admittance first graders would have to read 500 pages, second
graders one thousand pages, third graders fifteen hundred pages, forth graders two
thousand pages, and fifth graders twenty-five hundred pages. In order to ensure
that these numbers are neither too easy nor too hard to attain, I would run
them by the students’ teachers before setting the guidelines of the
Read-A-Thon. The children would also have to write a book report on each book
to guarantee they really did read them, and the difficulty of the report would
depend on the child’s grade level.
Literature
in Our Schools would also offer a program similar to what R.A.B.D.A.R.G.A.B.
had. However, this program would run during the spring school year and allow
children to trade book reports for prizes. I thought about renewing
R.A.B.D.A.R.G.A.B.’s “Get a Buck” aspect but worried that we would not have
enough money to supply the “buck” if there was an unexpected surplus of book
reports turned in. That possibly might even be the reason why the program
disappeared in the first place – lack of funds. Thankfully there has been a
great advancement in technology since when I was a child, and it makes it
easier to keep track of every child and their book reports. We are now able to
use the internet to keep track of all students involved in our program and
watch their progress. First, students would have to register online with
Literature in Our Schools to create an account. Then, after they write their
book report they can either mail it to us so we can upload it onto their
account or can personally upload it directly to the web site. For each book
report they turn in, the students each get one point and can turn those points
in for prizes. The prizes will range from simple toys like stuffed animals to 
electronics such as
televisions, and to
win bigger prizes they will have to turn in more points. If this plan sounds
familiar it is because it is basically how the ticket-prize system at arcades
work except that this system is free to the player. In order to have the prizes
available for the children, we plan on asking for gift donations from toy
stores, book stores, and electronic stores.
The purpose of these programs is to provide the opportunity for children to develop on their own. We only work through positive reinforcement and all programs are optional, so if they really do not want to read they do not have to. Literacy in Our Schools set the path for the students while their teachers are there to encourage them along said path, because “learning is based on discovery guided by mentoring rather than on the transmission of information.”[2] This way resentment does not play a role in the students’ lives; when students are forced into action they often tend to associate whatever they were forced to do with something negative. Thus thanks to our efforts the negative stigma does not become attached to literacy. A geographer named David Brower once said that “the environment sustains our bodies. But as humans we require support for our spirits.”[3] Our program is about nurturing children beyond the standard educational realm; we want to nurture their attitudes, feelings, and hearts.
Of course, there might be people who
would accuse us of bribing children to read like R.A.B.D.A.R.G.A.B. was accused
of doing. Yet, this is a harsh and
hypocritical accusation because if you think about it everything in life is
accomplished through bribes. When any one accomplishes anything they are
rewarded in some way, whether it is by a smile or with words. For example, when a child makes an A on an
exam their parents praise them and might reward them by taking them out for
dinner or by even placing the exam on the refrigerator. Does anyone have the
right to look down at this child’s parents for wanting to reward their child
for doing a good job? So saying that we would be bribing children is really
uncalled for; especially since bribery is a negative word usually linked with
extortion. These same people that criticize our program use the same “bribing”
technique in their daily lives and are being hypocritical. By merely laughing
in response to someone’s joke can be considered a bribe; they reward the joker
with a laugh. There is absolutely nothing wrong with positive reinforcement and
without positive reinforcement the whole world and the people in it would be
completely different. Personally, I like to tell a lot of jokes, and if no one
ever laughed at my jokes I would stop trying to be funny altogether. It makes
you wonder that if we did not reward readers, would they just stop reading?
As
of right now I do not have the resources to fund such a program, but I plan on
attending law school and becoming a corporate lawyer in the future. As a lawyer
I will have the money to jump start this program. It may be arrogant to assume
that I will be a rich lawyer, but I just know with my determination I will be
successful regardless of what happens in the future. People might wonder why I
would want to use my hard-earned money instead of just relying on donations
alone, but, as Buckley states, “The soul’s abiding hope lay in its conversion
from the tyranny of self to the higher purpose of the ‘eternal process’.”[4] By
using my own material gains to help others I prevent myself from succumbing to
the selfishness that some leaders fall victim to. If I start out unselfishly
motivated, it would be easier for me to remember that there are others whose
needs are greater than mine. Therefore, I will not only give them my money and
time, but also my heart and dedication. However, using my own resources can
only get me so far, so I plan on gathering donations
from large companies such as Barnes and Nobles and Borders. Barnes and Nobles
is “committed to literary-based sponsorships and seeks to partner with
organizations that focus their core businesses on higher learning, literacy and
the arts[5]…”
and Borders “offers funding and promotional opportunities to nationally
recognized non-profit organizations whose missions support literacy, education,
and the fine and performing arts.”[6] With companies such as these two that are such big
supporters of nation-wide literacy it should be easy to get donations. Yet, on
the chance that I am not able to get contributions from any companies, I plan
on petitioning at the state or national level for grants.
Luckily, the costs for this program
should not be too expensive since the children’s school and local libraries
would be supplying the actual books for the children to read. Plus, because we
would be a non-profit organization we would be tax-exempt and that would help
to significantly cut costs. However, we would need money to start a web site
with enough available memory to hold (hopefully) thousands of book reports and
an office to act as a home base for our organization, Literature in Our
Schools.
As for the staff of Literacy in Our
Schools, I would recruit volunteers from high schools and adults in the local
area. I could even ask my law firm for volunteers, because it would work to
publicize their company in a beneficial light. There are usually many people
looking for volunteer opportunities; they just have not been asked for help.
Personally, I love to volunteer so if I am ever asked I usually jump at the
opportunity; I along with most people in
I
know it will be hard work to set up such a complex program, but accomplishing any
goal is tough: “because it stands on a hill, the path leading up to it involves
effort and struggle.”[7] Furthermore
the reward of knowing that I have made a positive impact in at least one
child’s life is a great feeling. Knowing that child has a chance to grow up to
love literature like I did gives me hope for the future, because the next
generation will continue to promote the cause that we and others before us have
started.
I have only just outlined my dream, but I feel as if I am one step closer to making it come true. Above all my goals I want to be a good leader and I won’t ever feel this satisfaction until I pass what Walter Lippmann considers the final test, “The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction to carry on.”[8]
P1B Word count: 1593
P1B Word count without quotes: 1444
Words deleted from P1B: 13
Words added to P1B: 377
P2B Word count: 1957
P2B Word count without quotes: 1808
Website:
https://webspace.utexas.edu/cnp96/E375%20P2A%20-%20hard%20copy.htm