April 2006 | Online Edition
Read Aloud America assembly with Governor Lingle and Jed Gaines.
Read Aloud America:
A Story with a Happy Ending
by Malia Zimmerman, HawaiiReporter.com
Imagine reading to more than 100,000 children and their families. Just one man in Hawaii can make that claim - Jed Gaines of Read Aloud America.
Gaines - an entrepreneur and a long time member and former board member of Small Business Hawaii - is an unlikely founder of such an organization. As a kid, he was dyslexic and did not learn to read until the third grade, but even after that, he struggled with reading until going into the U.S. Navy. The turning point for the local businessman came when he became a father himself and wanted to read to his son. A talk with an understanding librarian alleviated his concerns and changed his attitude as well as the direction of his life.
“I told the librarian I was going to be a dad but did not know how to help my son because I didn’t do well in high school or college. She handed me the first edition of the Read Aloud handbook, and encouraged me to start reading aloud to my children as soon as they were born. I did and by 1987, besides reading to my kids, I was volunteering in classrooms reading aloud to the students,” Gaines says. He then went on to become a substitute teacher.
Several years later, in 1995, Gaines launched Read Aloud America, a nonprofit organization encouraging Hawaii’s families to read, spend time together and to improve literacy in Hawaii. Read Aloud America has been a constant success - the Read Aloud Program, RAP has been growing over the last 11 years to become the largest and most effective program of its kind in America.
The organization’s premise is based on the conclusion of the Commission on Reading’s 1985 report, “Becoming a Nation of Readers,” which states: “The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.”
University of Hawaii President David McLain reads out loud.
Since its inception, Read Aloud America has had more than 105,000 participants at nearly 50 schools and has grown to attract on a weekly basis an average of 1,000 students, teachers, parents/guardians.
“We know of no other family literacy program in Hawaii or in the nation that has attracted such numbers,” Gaines says.
The reason for the program’s success, Gaines says, is because it is simple, but the magic formula is the power of story and limiting electronic media during the week. The school administrators help coordinate the event and win because teachers, parents and students come together on campus to celebrate literacy and as a result, kids are more interested in reading and do better in school. In addition, families can relax together at a fun, free event and no one has to cook dinner or do dishes because there is a pizza party that follows.
“RAP” is initially integrated into each school through the classroom, where teachers and Gaines entice the kids to attend the reading sessions with their families. Gaines spends nine hours in the classroom reading to the kids and answering questions about computers, television and libraries, before the big reading events are held on campus. Once the students are ready, families take time out from busy schedules six times during one school semester to meet in the school cafeteria. Several well-known people in Hawaii have become volunteer readers at these gatherings including Gov. Linda Lingle, Mayor Mufi Hannemann, UH president David McClain and former U.S. Attorney Dan Bent.
The challenge, in some cases Gaines says, is to get the adults to attend, because without them, students cannot attend. Some parents are busy — some are intimidated thinking they might be called on to read aloud or be tested.
“Although some parents who participate cannot read or write, they can still listen to a great story and then start to get into reading slowly, and help their kids do so in the process by role modeling,” Gaines says.
RAP has five goals: Encouraging parents/caregivers and teachers to read to children on a regular basis; providing resources to help parents and teachers choose books and read to children; demonstrating the pleasure of reading and its relevance to daily life; nurturing a love of reading in parents and awakening a love of reading in children; and encouraging families to limit television, computer, and video time and read.
And the program gets results, Gaines says, not just through numbers of people attending, but in changing attitudes toward reading and values in the home long term.
“We were worried that old habits might kick back in, and families would stop reading together after they participated in the program, but we were wrong, they do keep reading together and keep attending the RAP events years later,” Gaines says.
Gaines says his dream is to expand RAP to neighboring Hawaiian Islands (they have had a very successful program in Kapaa, Kauai) and to the U.S. Mainland and already is working with a host of volunteers to do so. Local colleges including the University of Hawaii and Chaminade University as well as some mainland colleges are working with Read Aloud America team to expand the RAP program.
“I want to see this program change the world and it will if we can continue to get financial support from individuals, foundations, and corporations nationwide,” Gaines says with a smile and great enthusiasm.
For more information about RAP, or to support the nonprofit through donations of time and money, visit www.readaloudamerica.org Contact: Jed Gaines at jedgaines@readaloudamerica.org or by telephone at 531-1985.
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