National Family Literacy

Dateline. Louisville, KY. Galt House. My first National Family Literacy Conference. We left the testosterone-trio of grandsons at the beach in Daytona to travel cross-country to this amazing event. To be a presenter at an event where Marlee Matlin provides the keynote, is to think I've stretched & grown a bit in the past year. I remember seeing her on Broadway years ago, in "Children of a Lesser God" and being impressed beyond reason at her capability, so it was amazing to have my name in the same program as hers. The response to my workshop was uplifting. These were all sorts of professionals wearing all sorts of hats. The common denominators being reading, books, parents, families and raising everyone up, by raising up reading.

I got to hear just a taste test of the introductory remarks for the event. The thought that stayed with me is that much of a child's performance in their elementary school era can be predicted by the reading level and competancy of the child's mother. This feels something like "teach a person to fish" mentality. Teach a mother to read, if you really want to impact the educational life of the child. Meet the people above who are doing just that: creating projects for adult literacy to impact the children.