An
Open Letter to All Educators and All Parents
Summer
vacation is almost over. So now is the time to seriously consider
doing something to help a silent minority attain their rights
to an equal educational opportunity. Who knows, you might belong
to this unusually silent minority and not even know it.
This fall all across our country our community schools will open
with special adult community education classes for all kinds of
minorities. There will be classes for such minorities as those
who want to learn to program computers, arrange flowers, speak
a foreign language, train their dog, improve their keyboarding
skills, decorate cakes, play duplicate bridge, etc..
But there is one minority that is being completely ignored. That
is, the small minority of adults who would like to know what they
can do to help their child (or their spouse) learn to read or
spell.
Now don’t you think that this minority has as much right to help
as other minorities? Why is that there isn’t? Good question. Tough
to answer.
We talk about the literacy movement and the need for volunteers
to help. We have local literacy programs. We have national groups
such as Laubach Literacy International, Literacy Volunteers of
American, and the AVKO Dyslexia Research Foundation who train
tutors. But the largest pool of potential volunteers lies untapped—those
in the immediate family who can read.
Isn’t time your adult community education program had classes
in tutoring family members in reading? If your school is to have
classes for parents this fall, now is the time for them to start
planning before the rush to summer vacation begins.
Write for a free pamphlet entitled How to Set Up a Community
Education Course for Adults Whose Children (Or Spouses) Have Reading/Spelling
Problems. Read the pamphlet and then give it to the Community
School Director or a principal and make sure they begin planning.
For more information visit the AVKO Dyslexia & Research Foundation’s
website at www.avko.org or email Don McCabe at DonMcCabe@aol.com.#
Education
Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001.
Tel: (212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919.Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express
consent of the publisher. © 2002.
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