Cultivating magic

Kaitlyn Marks
Class of 2021

(3/2018) When brainstorming and researching ideas for a significant historical event which occurred in March, something often forgotten but incredibly impactful came immediately to my mind. As a child, reading was both a way for me to escape and to grow. I spent hours every day devouring books, short stories, and more, diving beneath the pages and words and becoming a better person, learning about the world, and discovering who I could be one day. Many children, however, do not experience the joy of reading or have an educational or family background that cultivates a love of reading. The National Education Association works hard to combat the achievement gaps and disparities in the education system, especially for special needs, low-income and minority students.

In 1997, an innovative reading task force group at the NEA came up with a brilliant idea: to create a special holiday across the nation devoted to celebrating reading. While many educators work tirelessly every day to inspire children and help them become lifelong learners, it is difficult to encourage children to love reading and to inspire them to seek out books, especially when kids may not be able to prioritize reading over daily responsibilities. Many children in the public school system read below grade level, and this can be accounted for by not reading often. On March 2, 1998, over 500,000 educators and millions of children became a part of the very first Read Across America Day, celebrating books with festivities, creating a sense of unity among communities, and hoping to provide every child with a book to spend time with: ultimately fostering a love of reading.

In order to nourish children’s development into successful adolescents, adults, and working professionals, it is immensely important to create a passion for reading at an early age. Multitudes of studies demonstrating the effect of reading on long-term success and happiness have shown a strong correlation to early childhood reading. During my senior year of high school, I completed an internship in the public school system with an occupational therapist, where we worked with special needs students in a variety of programs and schools. Regardless of the children’s backgrounds, abilities, limitations or struggles, I directly observed the light that blossomed inside of them when I pulled out a book.

I saw the way a child from a disadvantaged, neglectful home life could escape and believe in a world other than that which they experienced every day. Moreover, I saw the power of reading transforming the child’s confidence, expanding his or her self-esteem and assurance of his or her capabilities. As I watched a middle schooler with a variety of medical conditions struggle through reading a sentence, I never anticipated the joy that would erupt in the room as she finished. Her frail fingers pressing against each letter and syllable, painstakingly sounding out the words and attempting to make sense of what seemed impossible, she made it to the end and beamed, realizing that even though it was hard, she could do it. Without her teacher or therapists prompting her to do so, as celebratory high fives were given, she grabbed the next sheet with her readings and started laboriously working through it again. Reading is not only something that is necessary for academic success in the long-term, but also is a completely transformative experience that can unleash a child’s confidence and allow him or her to experience joy.

Since its establishment in 1998, Read Across America Day has become a nationwide community event, bringing together diverse groups of people to help kids understand how amazing and powerful reading can be. While many of the historical events that occurred in March changed the world in huge ways, the creation of a day devoted to fostering literacy and cultivating a motivation to read has transformed the lives and educations of millions of children across the country, and to me, nothing could be more magical than unlocking a lifelong tool and passion in children.

Additionally, the organization provides resources and activities to boost learning and reading motivation throughout the year. During my research, I discovered the NEA’s newest campaign in partnership with United Through Reading, the "40 Million Stories Campaign." For children, a bedtime story is not only a comforting, loving event; bedtime stories represent a curation of books and a love of reading, and can inspire children to love reading even from early ages. Unfortunately, for military families, there are millions of bedtime stories missed while on active deployment.

Their newest campaign works to alleviate this by allowing deployed family members to record and send home bedtime stories that their kids can read and cherish, fostering a love of learning, creating a stable routine and promoting psychological wellbeing, and increasing literacy. The NEA’s continued devotion to promoting literacy, especially since the turning point of creating Read Across America Day, explicates the American values of community and passion, bringing to light in education the nature of reading as a whole.

When children walk into a library or a classroom, their eyes light up with wonder. Contained inside the seemingly endless shelves is an infinite number of worlds, an infinite sea of possibility, and the potential for magic. Like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory or Alice’s wonderland, there is magic humming in the air wherever books are present. Unlocking the ability to access that magic is the greatest gift that children can receive.

No matter where a child is in his or her life, no matter the struggles they face, or how tumultuous life may be, cracking open a book and peeking into a whole new world can transform the way he or she feels about the world. Moreover, they are able to experience the joy of learning, the spark of curiosity, and the warmth of coming home to familiar words. Whether discovering the wonders of the ocean in a huge nonfiction book or experiencing the adventures of a favorite character in the series they can’t get enough of, children need reading. Read Across America Day helps bring that magic and passion to every child in America.

Read other articles by Kaitlyn Marks