Many teachers will tell you the key to educational success is parent involvement. Kids spend more time at home with their families than they do at school, and the encouragement and support parents give is often the deciding factor in whether that child does well in school.
How then do we persuade hundreds of parents to get off the couch, turn off the TV and come regularly to school?
A program in Hawaii is doing just that. It’s called Read Aloud America.
Anywhere from 200 to 800 people attend a Read Aloud America program at a Hawaii public school each week. And 10 schools each semester may partake in the nonprofit organization’s literacy program, meaning it attracts several thousand people on all islands.
No other group in the state draws anywhere near that number on a regular basis to a nonathletic event.
Linapuni Elementary School Principal Cynthia Sunahara says she was overwhelmed by the huge numbers that attended each session at her school in Kalihi. This small school (K-2) has only 224 students, but more than 200 parents and children attended each of their six sessions. "Never before has Linapuni experienced such a fantastic turnout on a regular basis," she said.
Kent Matsumura, principal of Honowai Elementary School in Waipahu, says the program is the "most effective parent-community involvement activity connected to school and family literacy we have experienced."
The Read Aloud Program meets every other week for six sessions per semester in the school cafeteria over snacks, soda, pizza, books and shared family time. Presenters read stories to the adults, and volunteers read to the children.
At the beginning there are games as well, but more important, the program instills the joy of reading in children and parents.
In 1995 founder and President Jed Gaines joined with Jim Harstad, former English Department chairman at the University of Hawaii Laboratory School, and Marion Coste, children’s book author, to create RAP, the Read Aloud Program.
In January 1999, Read Aloud America implemented a RAP pilot program at Barbers Point Elementary School. Since then, with state support, RAP has completed 135 additional programs that draw an average of more than 300 participants per session.
It may surprise you to know that this Hawaii-based program is the largest literacy program in the country. Through the end of 2012, more than 299,000 have attended sessions. No other family literacy program in America has attracted such numbers.
RAP urges families to turn off the television and other electronic media on weeknights, and spend time reading and talking story.
"Research has shown that brain development is hindered by too much television and video games," Gaines says. "It’s detrimental to children’s reading and writing skills, decreases their ability to connect with others and impairs their social skills."
The organization’s premise is based on the conclusion of the Commission on Reading’s 1985 report, "Becoming a Nation of Readers," which states, "The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children."
"Parental involvement is the key," Gaines continues. "Many parents use the television and computer as a baby sitter, not realizing the downside of too much screen time. Parents are the ones that set values, principles and character. They can have a huge effect on how much time kids spend on TV and computer screens."
One parent thanks RAP for "opening the eyes of parents and children to the excitement that is held between the front and back cover of a book."
Another said, "Something as simple as a book can bring my relationship with my children and I closer, because I have made the time to read to them."
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Bob Sigall, author of the “Companies We Keep” books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
