And so, it begins again, we are nearing the end of another school year and the parents are gathering arms over summer reading.

It astounds me when parents are flabbergasted and combative over book reading requirements. I cannot fathom why a parent would denounce reading enrichment. I can only surmise it interferes with something planned or as the parent, you don’t want to put forth any efforts at home. Always complaining, stirring trouble at Parent teacher conferences and ranting to any one who has an ear to bend. Teaching your child the bare minimums is acceptable and coasting through with the least efforts will produce results. Oh my.

This is not the case. Ask anyone, who had a head start in reading, they will extol the benefits reading has provided in giving them the leg up over their peers in school and in business. They will concur, reading is fundamental to those advantages presently and towards later achievements.

I grew up in Pennsylvania with a successful educational program entitled RIF, the acronym for reading is fundamental. This is currently, a successful 50-year-old program geared towards children living in poverty. The principles of RIF, believe bringing quality books to kids will enrich their world, enhancing their imagination towards unlocking their potential. Access to free books is essential to ending illiteracy in America by reaching children known to be at risk by the very nature of poverty preventing access.

My parents qualified for free books by the very nature of birthing and supporting six children with a stay-at-home Mom on my Father’s mechanic’s income. I never felt as if we were “poor” as we had the essentials for food, shelter and clothes.
Toys and books were a luxury but I never felt slighted. We shared our toys and the books among us.

I had access to books. I was blessed to have easy access to a  library within walking distance from my house and a free library card.
My entertainment opportunities were contained within the walls of the neighborhood branch of the Pittsburgh Carnegie Libraries but my world of possibilities was boundless. All because a book opened windows to my soul and sparked my imagination. Stirring a need to learn all I could image shelved and listed within that card catalog, if I so choose to explore.

So, I love to read. I advocate reading.
Early in my children’s lives, I brought the joy of words to my sons by reading every evening and making weekly trips to libraries. The wherewithal to purchase books as easily as buying groceries. There were constant gifts of books. I still buy books at every opportunity for them and me. I actively support those who teach reading and the requirement towards a successful education. It’s a “no brainer” for me when reading is part of a curriculum as important to educational advancement.

Our school district has the Bingo cards concept as part of the school year English curriculum. A reading bingo card filled with different reading genres in each square. The goal is to fill 4 squares of your choice along with the class novel in the center free space. It has a point value assigned with each passing Accelerated Reading book quiz to gain a completed square. A completed row is a required nine week grade, with assigned letter grades. The purpose of this program is to engage students in an exciting motivating way over the summer and through the year. Many teachers spend the first month of school re-teaching basic comprehensive skills needed to support children’s analytical and cognitive skills.

Reading is essential to the fundamental basics of everything students learn and how they learn. If children learn to read, they will begin to expand their horizons.

Reading empowers students to extract information; they learn to think rationally/logically/cognitively/analytically and abstractly. Developing and parlaying these skills into a very powerful writing ability. Once they link these skill sets together they will apply this knowledge across every subject.

Comprehensive reading enables students to extract equations from word problems, this is essential in basic math. A skill set which becomes the framework of advanced mathematics and sciences. For example, in science, they will read to extrapolate analytical data and apply it to a scientific method. By deriving words in mathematics to solve equations by following the logically framework contained within the word problem.

The applications of reading across all the educational subjects is vast and varied in it’s entirety, but remains the same, necessary and key to understanding the principles comes from literacy. It’s essential to develop and expand the biggest, best tool we all carry on the top of our shoulders, our brain. It’s purpose is for navigating life and maintaining good health.

The benefits derived from improved memory alone are astounding to good health and successful academics.
Each new bit of information forges new brain connections, ie..synapses. This improves and maintains existing areas of the brain, aiding in the betterment of short and long-term memory. You all know the phrase as we age: Use it or lose it.

Learning the essentials necessary to become articulate and well written is the formula to successful interactions and contributions on a daily basis in all avenues of our lives. Further developing these tools will enable a person to hold intelligent conversation with anyone, communicating with vendors, customers or management teams is an enormous boost to your self-esteem and adds to your credibility.

This dual combination of self-assurance and confidence will aid in furthering your career advancement. It is well documented, those who are well-read, well-spoken, and knowledgeable on a variety of topics tend to get promotions more quickly than persons whom are not well read on a multitude of subjects and hold lesser vocabularies in their conversational cache.

As an avid reader myself, time spent reading provides me ample stress reduction. It allows me to travel across the globe from my chair via my vivid imagination. A mini vacation all compliments of my local library or Kindle application library. I have all genres accessible for my education at any moment, anywhere I can open a book or reading app. Endless education readily available at my finger tips, all because I can and will read. Pleasure reading isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but it’s a useful life skill in our daily living. I believe reading takes us further than any other skill acquired in life.

I wholeheartedly, believe my abilities aren’t limited because reading opens me to assorted opinions, ideas, ideals and cultures beyond my limited zip code. It empowers me. I can and will hold my own with anyone in conversation. All because reading has built within me the self-esteem from comprehending a broader horizon with an appreciation for new ideas. Boosting my confidence to discuss those differences in a tactful well spoken interchange of ideas or expressing dissent without loosing my self-respect.

Now back to the  local board of education requiring reading supplements in my local junior high school: every child was given the same advantages when they leave our local middle school regarding the assigned over summer reading bingo sheet.

Opportunity to attend the summer reading lab every Monday in June to bank up to 4 books in any genres. If utilizing the summer reading lab wasn’t convenient to the parents schedule that’s on them, there were other options. Those who complain because they have a mouth and a voice with no excuses, well….These ladies (teachers) were there EVERY MONDAY FROM 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on their own time for all students.

Those other options for students with limited transportation, they were given opportunities to sign out books over the summer on the last day of school in 6th grade through the 11th grade. EVERY STUDENT IS ASSIGNED A PREREQUISITE BOOK ASSIGNMENT. They are all handed school copies of the assigned book with worksheets due the first few days of the new school session.

My eldest son has been through this same reading system, he was given the very same foundations for his educational success. It served him very well. My eldest son is highly motivated to succeed in a very competitive Advanced Placement program as a result of his endeavors, he is a National Honor Society senior in high school. He is confident and assured in all his academics because, he knows he can puzzle out any situation through researching and reading the discovery.

Reading is essential in education. It is THE KEY to my eldest son’s success. I want that same foundation for my youngest son as well. It matters not how the school district packages the program, it matters the program underscores the value of reading and its essential place in education.

Yet, as we near end of the school year, parents become up in arms about the required summer reading assignment. Unhappy with the time commitment their child must devote to this project, when after all, school’s out of session. Infuriated, their kid must read on the beach, or surrender the gaming console for a few hours a day or limit how late they can sleep in on a summer morning.

Oh, Come on. Really?

Didn’t I see your Facebook post capturing your beach legs and lap holding a book while balancing a drink in your hand?

Did I see that? Yes. I. Did. So, what’s the problem with a bit of structured time?

I guarantee, the efforts your child puts forth now will pay off in school and later in life. Sleeping late over summer is not a resume enhancement, in fact, it will guarantee doubts to their reliability. A great vacation at the beach picture, a golden tan and gaming dexterity are not the first steps to success, at least not for the majority, who are not planning to model for Hawaiian Tropics tanning lotions or becoming the gaming YouTube sensation.

I’ll grant there may be the few, rare off-chance kids, who will need those skills, IF they are angling for those jobs. I still believe they will need to read and understand the wording in their contracts, understand their gaming channels blogs and read the manuals of their camera to be successful.

So, I ask parents to get with it and embrace the concepts. Otherwise, you are short-changing your children’s abilities to thrive in a competitive world and strive under pressure. Learning from their failures, discovering their strengths, so they may realize their talents and capabilities. Cementing their self-confidence and their determination to succeed; it will unlock doors and open possibilities. Reading is Fundamental, it is essential to their successful start and along the path through all aspects in their life.

Please stop complaining about education lacking in producing skillful and knowledgeable students, if you are going to throw up the roadblocks by “dumbing down” the kids through tying teacher’s hands and prompting young minds to rebel at hard work.

Give your child the golden key to success, teach them to read and you will open up their world.