Reading Something Into It
Bill Trueheart MPA 1973
By the time he was in the fifth grade, Bill
Trueheart MPA 1973 had to go to the public library in his hometown
of Stanford, Connecticut, to take out books because this self-described
“avid reader” had already blasted through every single biography
and autobiography in his elementary school library.
So it’s
no surprise that Trueheart, a man who has spent nearly two decades in
higher education and earned a PhD at Harvard’s Graduate School of
Education, would end up running the nation’s largest and oldest nonprofit
children’s literacy organization, Reading Is Fundamental (RIF).
“One
of the most touching things I can remember in my life is when my fifth
grade teacher, knowing my love of reading, bought me a book on the Wright
brothers — something we didn’t have in our library,” Trueheart
says during a hectic phone interview while on the road raising money that
involved his juggling two calls at once. “It was her way of encouraging
me to read.”
It is this same kind of encouragement that Trueheart has tried to offer since he took the reins at RIF in 1997, after 10 years at Bryant College in Rhode Island, 7 as the president. Not an easy task, he says, faced with a waiting list of 1.7 million children who needed books when he arrived because of a lack of funds. Add to that a daunting statistic that literacy nationwide is going down.
“Our
best estimates show that more than 40 million American citizens are either
low literate or illiterate. They can’t fill out a simple job application,”
he says. “And this group has a greater rate than the overall population
of having children.”
Other parents,
he says, are working two or three jobs and can’t spend the time with
their children that they’d like to, or they are simply unwilling
to help.
“No
matter the circumstance, these children suffer,” he says. “And
it’s not fair. They shouldn’t be put at a disadvantage. What
we do at RIF is help motivate children and parents and train those teachers
who don’t have a clue how to engage children to read.”
The 35-year-old
organization — started when a woman named Margaret Craig McNamara
discovered that the children she tutored in Washington, DC, owned no or
few books — does more than just give away reading material. Today,
with the help of more than 360,000 volunteers, RIF develops and delivers
free, comprehensive literacy programs to the highest-priority kids —
birth to age 11. And it’s all done, Trueheart says, through what
they call a “community of reading.”
“The
African adage that Hillary Rodham Clinton made famous — it takes
a village — that’s the spirit of the community of reading,”
he says. Surprisingly, this lover of books includes the Internet as part
of that community.
“Far
too many kids don’t have access to the Internet, and for those who
do, it may take some time away from reading, but not a lot,” he says.
“Over time, I think the Internet will, if properly used, enhance
our ability to engage children and adults to read. It’s a way for
adults to read privately, taking the stigma away. And for kids, electronic
books — e-books — could be interactive and in Technicolor, which
would be exciting. These kinds of books, which don’t exist much now,
would even allow kids to get involved in the story: they could change
characters and take words apart, for instance.”
Working with
technology to enhance reading isn’t new for RIF. Last year, the organization
was the first to work with “Between
the Lions,” a PBS television series that involves animation
and live action designed to help children read. RIF added another element
to the series by creating a book “cub” program being piloted
in 10 homes throughout Boston and Washington, DC.
No matter
what element is used to get kids motivated, Trueheart says, citing RIF’s
motto,”America needs every child to read.
“We believe that being able to read is an important part of citizenship,” he says. “And I believe that if we truly do have a nation of readers, we’ll be a stronger nation.”
