By Isle of Wight Observer
For Christmas I was given a book called ‘Winter Warmer’. Books are always a joy as a present, and this book is a compilation by Charlie Ellingworth of passages, sentences, poems, words, sayings, etc., that he has read in the last year and that have appealed to him.
It includes excerpts from newspaper articles from this last year, political treatises from the past, passages from books, quotations from classics, jokes, proverbs and more. As I was browsing through, one quotation rang a bell with me as a message for one of the great campaigns that took off on the Island during 2023. I am talking about the campaign for volunteers to read with children in all our primary schools.
Goethe (German poet, scientist and writer who lived from 1749 to 1832) wrote “If you treat a child as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and he could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.”
The volunteers who are going into our schools to read with children are not only helping to open up the wonderful world of knowledge and enjoyment that reading gives access to, but they are also giving those children one-to-one time with an adult who is not a member of their family, a teacher or someone in authority. These volunteers know nothing about the background or expectations of any child (apart from what the child might tell them) and therefore can, and do, expect each individual child “to be what he ought to be and could be”.
Reading is such a vital tool. Even in this technological world it is hard to use the technology if you can’t read. And I believe the pleasure of reading should be instilled in every child. As a community we cannot ignore our responsibility to educate children. It is not just the job of teachers and parents; we should all play our part. Hard pressed teachers do not have time to read with every child regularly, and many children get no reading at home. Many come from homes where there are no books. If you are reading this article you are someone who probably takes the ability to read for granted. Can you imagine life if you could not read?
It is a tragedy and a sad comment on how we value literacy that so many young people today cannot read with any fluency and their lives are blighted because of it.
On the Island we have had small numbers of volunteers in a small number of schools reading with Year 1 and Year 2 pupils for many years and they will have helped change children’s lives.
In 2023, our High Sheriff, Dawn Haig-Thomas, in conjunction with a charity called Schoolreaders, launched a project to have volunteer readers in every primary school on the Island. Since its launch more than 45 volunteers have been recruited and are reading with children in 15 of the 22 Schoolreaders primary schools on the Island. There are 38 primary schools.
My wish for 2024 is that the Isle of Wight should be aiming to be at the forefront of primary school literacy. If enough volunteers come forward and all primary schools sign up to the scheme, we will as a community be contributing to an Island where every child has a chance to be “what they ought to be and can be”.