In Our Community September 2002

"A community is a group of people with varying degrees of expertise in which the experts attempt to help the novices improve their skills." (Philip Greenspun.) In this article, Alex tells about offering his expertise.

Ready To Read

by Alex Hoffman

There is a program called Ready To Read. There are mostly adults in the program but you can go in the program with an adult if you have an interview. I know about this program because I am in it. After your interview, you take a little training and then you can either read at a hospital or other medical place or you could read at Head Start. You have to be approved in the place you are going to read at. At Head Start, you usually come during choice time. At the hospital, the people are in the waiting room. You get a special library card with a rhinoceros on it. Using this card, you can check out children's books without getting overdue notices. You also get a Ready To Read book bag to carry your books in. Sign on to the program if you want. It's really fun because you get to read to lots of people and it's fun finding out about the people you're reading to and it's fun checking out good books for them, and it's fun reading to them.

Alex did his Ready To Read training at the Kalamazoo Public Library. He and his mom found out about it there, and he has read at the Head Start program at Northeastern Elementary.

We had an outside Market/Swap Meet at the end of August. Books, toys and ideas got traded around! Not to mention some really big masks.

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"Ultimately, education is about connecting with the universe, making our place in it. The more we connect, the bigger our lives and dreams." --Grace Llewellyn