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Happy Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this annual ALA event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. This year, 2008, marks BBW's 27th anniversary (September 27 through October 4).
BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.
BBW is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Library Association, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of American Publishers, National Association of College Stores, and is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this ... more -
Italian illitterate rate soars to 12%
Some recent researches revealed that six million Italians are not capable of writing or reading. Another 13 million people run the risk of becoming illitterate in the next years. The highest rate was registered in Southern Italy. Some recent researches revealed that six million Italians are not capable of writing or reading. Another 13 million people run the ris... more
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Overcoming Illiteracy in Indonesia
Teaching literacy is Bahrul Ulumiyah Suheb’s driving passion. Though Indonesia has a high rate of literacy, in Bahrul’s town several thousand people cannot write, read or count. Sixty percent of those are women, she adds.
A teacher by profession, Bahrul makes her living by teaching elementary school students and also gives a great deal of her time and energy as a volunteer with Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia—a non-profit organization that focuses on women’s empowerment. The organization coordinates several different programs for women, but abolishing illiteracy is one of its main activities.
Bahrul says there are four literacy groups running with about 40 women participating this year. She particularly likes seeing older women learn to read, “even if it’s just one word.” She says that the grandchildren of these women often accompany them to class and may help them learn. “I like this program very much because, as a teacher, I have to implement my skills and it fits with my background. I like to teach them spelling one by one of the alphabet.”
Bahrul is also clearly excited about her work with women’s clubs. Since 2006, her volunteer organization has established four such clubs (with about 200 women participating) and there are plans to have three additional ones for those women now involved in the literacy program. These clubs provide a vehicle to help women access information, which Bahrul believes is central to giving women more of a voice in Indonesia.
Bahrul Suheb, CEDPA GWIM graduate
Barhrul empowers the women in her community by teaching them how to read.
The women’s club members, who often meet in local homes, may participate in microcredit initiatives and also receive “hot news,” skills training, and small door prizes. She cited, for example, the information they disseminated for an upcoming governor’s election, such as “how to choose the best candidate with the best vision.”
Bahrul herself gained from the information sharing and interactions with others at CEDPA’s Summer 2008 Global Women in Management training program, which was supported through the ExxonMobil Foundation’s Educating Women and Girls Initiative. She says she has valued “know[ing] leaders from other countries, shar[ing] experience, and adapt[ing] experience for my organization.” Bahrul hopes to transfer the knowledge she gained at CEDPA’s training to the capacity building she is doing in local communities. “I have to transform my new knowledge to my members and to beneficiaries in some villages,” she says.
Most of Bahrul’s work as a volunteer is done on evenings and weekends. She often leaves home early and returns late, and is happy to report that her family supports her activities. In a family of seven siblings and with parents who are farmers, Bahrul is largely self-sufficient and had to pay her own way through college.
Bahrul says that most of the people in her village—about 20 km away from Tuban where the local office of Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia is based—are open-minded about what she does. But she says that being a single, working woman in Indonesia isn’t always easy, both because the culture there remains very male-dominated and women who have education are sometimes looked down upon.
It can be an ongoing challenge. Bahrul mentioned that “in villager’s meetings in Tuban, for example, almost all the participants are men. Women in the village are not represented in decision making.” So, she tries “to change the monopoly of men in public.” Bahrul teaches members of the women’s clubs in the villages to become as informed as the men so they can contribute ideas. She also says that “gender training can help change minds,” and mentioned annual gender trainings that her organization holds for college students, housewives and farmers “to increase awareness of women’s skills and equality.”
*continues Teaching literacy is Bahrul Ulumiyah Suheb’s driving passion. Though Indonesia has a high rate of literacy, in Bahrul’s town several t... more -
New Program Brings Books to 10,000 Children
In honor of September 11 victim Brooke Jackman, over 10,000 disadvantaged children throughout New York will receive the gift of a new book.
On Aug. 28th, what would have been Brookes’s 30th birthday, the Brooke Jackman Foundation launched their new “Book in Hand” program at P.S. 250 in Brooklyn. Wrapped with care in colorful paper, each child received a free book. The program, which will continue through Sept. 11, will become an annual tradition for the foundation.
“The basic premise is that every child in every one of our programs gets a present for Brooke’s birthday,” said Brooke’s sister, Erin Jackman. “The present being a brand new book”
During the day-long program, children also enjoyed a book reading by author, Jill Santopolo, a lunch, and a slide show presentation about how the Brooke Jackman Foundation was formed.
Having just graduated from Columbia University at the age of 23, Brooke was working at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor of the North tower when the terrorist attack hit in 2001. According to Erin, Brooke had a passion for reading and, just prior to the fateful day, had announced to her family that she wanted to go back to school so that she could work with children.
Combining Brooke’s dreams to help children and her passion to read, her family started the Brooke Jackman Foundation in her memory shortly after her memorial service was held. “Since she was a little girl she loved to read and was never without her books,” said Booke’s sister, Erin. Since then we decided to combine her desire to help children and her love of reading and we started the foundation.”
Since its inception, the foundation has grown and flourished, reaching out to thousands of underprivileged children throughout New York. Among the numerous programs it now hosts are its intensive Family Literacy Workshops in Washington Heights and Brooklyn, as well as its “Brooke Packs” program which gives backpacks filled with books, audio books, Walkmans, and school supplies to children living in temporary housing. The foundation has also established two libraries with plans to open a third later this year.
Recalling one of the families reached through the Family Literacy Workshops, Erin mentioned that one mother and child had come to attend week after week. She later approached Erin to thank her, mentioning that after the program, both she and her daughter read every chance they get. “She handed me these flowers and said, ‘thank you for helping my daughter and me to blossom,’” said Erin.
Erin mentioned that, with their new “Book in Hand,” initiative, the foundation hopes to touch the lives of even more children. “I’d like to see my sister’s love of reading spread to all of the kids in all of our programs,” Erin said. In honor of September 11 victim Brooke Jackman, over 10,000 disadvantaged children throughout New York will receive the gift of a new ... more -
New website to help deaf children
A new website is being launched which is aimed at helping deaf children improve their literacy skills.
The site, called Signed Stories, is being developed by Gateshead-based ITV Signpost after statistics from the National Deaf Society revealed the disparity between the GCSE results of deaf and hearing children, reports The Journal.
Just 33 per cent of deaf children achieve five GCSE A-C grades compared with 60 per cent of hearing children, which ITV Signpost managing director Malcolm Wright describes as 'scandalous'.
A total of 100 contemporary children's books will be put online in British Sign Language and will feature animation, text and audio recorded by the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, with 200 more to be added by 2011.
'The world that these children live in is dominated by the English language and it can take a long time for parents to learn sign language and interact with their children,' said Mr Wright.
'Hopefully our site will help combat this and give deaf children a boost with their literacy skills.'
ITV Signpost is the UK's largest provider of on-screen British Sign Language and provides services for every platform, including television, DVD and the internet.
The company is part of ITV A new website is being launched which is aimed at helping deaf children improve their literacy skills. ... more -
Inara George - Interview
Inara sits down with identitytheory.com, a (sort of) literary website
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English Children Can't Read English
In the country that gave birth to the English language, one in five 11 year olds can't read and have failed to master mathematics.
(Article from OhmyNews English)
Is it the problem of UK Education system or other? In the country that gave birth to the English language, one in five 11 year olds can't read and have failed to master mathematics... more -
Student won't write gooder in the future two (as in also)
I read this on the NYT today, what surprised me the most was the positive spin that they put into it.
"James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress, drew laughs when he expressed concern about what he called 'the slow destruction of the basic unit of human thought, the sentence,' because young Americans are doing most of their writing in disjointed prose composed in Internet chat rooms or in cellphone text messages.
“'The sentence is the biggest casualty,' Mr. Billington said. 'To what extent is students’ writing getting clearer? Is that still being taught?'"
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"The encouraging overall results contrasted with some other recent indicators of Americans’ writing prowess. A survey of 120 corporations conducted by the College Board in 2003, for instance, concluded that one-third of employees at the nation’s blue-chip companies wrote poorly, and that businesses were spending billions of dollars on remedial training, some of it for new hires straight out of college.
“Overall, American students’ writing skills are deteriorating,” said Will Fitzhugh, the founder of Concord Review, a journal published in Massachusetts that features history research papers written by high school students. He expressed skepticism that the national assessment accurately measured students’ overall writing skills because, he said, it only tests their ability to write very brief essays jotted out in half an hour.
“The only way to assess the kind of writing that students will have to do in college is to have them write a term paper, and then have somebody sit down and grade it — and nobody wants to do that, because it’s too costly,” he said.
Mr. Fitzhugh cited findings of a 2006 survey of college professors, in which a large majority said they thought most high school graduates came to college with limited writing skills."
'Encouraging results' for a system hell bent on keeping class separations very real and a tight hold on the governmental power.
However, I digress:
One contentious point of this article speaks to the dissolution of the "basic unit of human thought," and that "unit" is the "sentence." All of us here (or maybe 'here') share some basic literacies: internet, computer, (and to a lesser of greater degree) information literacy. But we all communicate in different styles, so here's my question(s) to you.
Is the sentence the basic unit of though?
Is the dissolution of the sentence a bad thing? I read this on the NYT today, what surprised me the most was the positive spin that they put into it. ... more -
The Young Hardworking Poor of Rural Bangladesh
The poor aren't lazy. Instead, as I learned very early on in my work here in Bangladesh, the poor are some of the hardest working people on the face of the planet.
In a recent trip to rural Bangladesh, I encountered 30 kids who were forced to choose between going to school and putting food on the table. They are able to study part-time (for two hours each day) because local community members in this rural village pooled their money to form an informal school. The school teacher teaches these children basic English, Bengali, and Math all for a salary of $15 a month.
For more information about what I'm doing in Bangladesh, check out my blog at:
http://uncultured.com
I look forward to sharing more with the Current.com community! The poor aren't lazy. Instead, as I learned very early on in my work here in Bangladesh, the poor are some of the hardest working... more -
txt language creeps in2 essays
Teenagers struggling with English at school often read "lightweight" magazines at home and write essays in the language of text messages, a report found today. Teenagers struggling with English at school often read "lightweight" magazines at home and write essays in the language of t... more
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A Click A Day Keeps Hunger At Bay, And Spreads The Love On Valentines Day
The Hunger Site offers users one of the easiest ways to make a small difference each day. All they ask is that you click on the big yellow button on their homepage once a day. In return, for each click counted, the site's sponsors will donate enough money to give 1.1 cups of food to those in need. Since its launch in June 1999, more than 300 million visitors have given more than 500 million cups of food, with an average of more than 220,000 visitors clicking for a cause each day. All of the site's advertising fees go to charity, with food being distributed by the Mercy Corps and Second Harvest. One easy way to get yourself in the click a day way, is to make The Hunger Site your new homepage. For those that can manage more than one charitable click per day, the site also offers one-click options to support free mammograms, child health care, literacy, the rainforest, and animal rescue. The site also offers free pins and bracelets (for those who register), and ecards, including Valentineâs ones, to spread the one-click love.
http://www.dailymantra.com The Hunger Site offers users one of the easiest ways to make a small difference each day. All they ask is that you click on the big ye... more -
A Bold Call to Action For Today's Shamefully Poorly Read Society
expect a dramatic increase in the reading rates of Americans and indeed people worldwide in the wake of this powerful message.
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Reading Minds
Project Read is an adult literacy program based in San Francisco. This pod gives a further insight into a particular individual's struggle with a problem that deserves attention. Project Read is an adult literacy program based in San Francisco. This pod gives a further insight into a particular individual's... more
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1 in 4 Americans Read No Books Last Year
No books at all. I'm sure they were too busy with The Economist, Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, New York Times and science journals for book-readin'. No books at all. I'm sure they were too busy with The Economist, Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, New York Times and sci... more
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Literacy
