It is nice to see money put to good use. Former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale put 100 million dollars of his own money up to found the Barksdale Reading Institute, and five years later that investment is getting results.
Five years ago, Barksdale and his late wife, Sally, put up $100 million of their own money to improve “preliteracy” skills for preschoolers and reading for children in kindergarten through third grade. The Oxford-based institute they created provides books and teacher training for some of the state’s neediest and lowest-performing schools.
Barksdale chose his brother, attorney Claiborne Barksdale, to run the institute, with strict instructions that he wanted results.
An independent analysis by a University of Mississippi research center recently confirmed the program was making a “statistically significant difference.”
But Claiborne Barksdale acknowledged: “You have so many children come in who have not been exposed to books and words. We cannot expect schools to transform magically children who have been neglected the first five years of their lives.”
71 schools throughout the state have benefited from the Institute’s initiatives. In a time where accounting fraud, corporate greed, and executive malfeasance fill the headlines, it is nice to know that philanthropy is alive and well.
How well?
Claiborne Barksdale said officials in several other states have sought donations, including California, Arizona, Texas, Kansas, Georgia, Florida, even Connecticut and Massachusetts.
The reply has been the same. For now, the money stays in Mississippi.
Note the “even” that prefaces the Northern states…
Just slightly off-topic. Remember the Scholastic newsletter? You could look through all the books for sale, check off one or two, maybe even get an issue of Dynamite if your parents were flush that month. The bookmobile was pretty cool too. Free book, pick anyone you like. So begins an expensive book habit.
I think programs like this make a difference. I also think most kids are readers, they’ve just got to be permitted to find the genre they like and grow from there. Whether its Black Stallion, sports books, comics, growing up books, whatever. Also, kids must be challenged to read at least a little above their current reading level.
Reading is FUNdamental.
You should be compensated for your advocacy of Scholastic
My only experience with Scholastic as a kid in the mid to late eighties was the annual book fair that came to the elementary school library. We had to buy those books. No fancy magical bookmobiles that gave out free books, no glitzy newsletters. In Mississippi, we paid for what we got.
I agree with your “most kids are readers statement”. I think my mother was my biggest influence in that regard. She read a lot and would never deny me a book. One thing led to another, and now I have to sleep with 6-11 volumes on my bed every night. And so it goes…