Developing the reading habit in children
Feb 03, 2011
[This blog is part of the "Innovate to Educate" blog series.] Grace Model School, where I work as an IDEX fellow, started an evening library for students and other children in October 2010. Our library is operated by student workers and charges a nominal fee of INR10 (~USD0.22)per month to join. For the first 2-3 months, the library was a very cheerful place, with robust membership, steady attendance and native English speaking volunteers every Saturday. Sometime in December, however, things began to change. The original student librarians had to stop working in the library so new students were chosen to operate the library. Then academics took center stage as the entire school was diligently preparing for the half-yearly examinations that took place at the end of the month. The English speaking volunteers weren’t able to come every Saturday because they had family coming to visit or trips planned for the holidays. Finally, there was a week of holiday after the half-yearly exams, during which the library was closed.
Through all these changes, attendance and membership in the library has been suffering. Even though classes are now back to normal we still have fewer students renewing their monthly membership and fewer students joining each month. Two very different ideas emerged while discussing the reasons for this decline with Irfan, the owner of Grace Model. The owner pointed to factors that disrupted the routine, like changing student librarians and the hectic exam schedule. I, however, wondered if the decline wasn’t due to the disruption in the volunteer routine. It’s true that students come to the library even when volunteers aren’t scheduled to appear, but our periods of highest membership and attendance came when we had volunteers faithfully appearing each weekend.
While neither the owner nor I have any way of knowing for certain what may have caused the decline in membership, we still have to try and fix the problem. While Irfan suggested eliminating the nominal monthly membership fee, I resisted this idea. I think the library can be an exciting service that children and parents would pay for gladly if we can teach students the value of the actual books. We enjoyed great success with the support of our volunteers, but our focus was on activities as opposed to the books themselves. I wonder now if any of my students have a better appreciation for the knowledge they can gain from reading independently of teachers or adults. I have to find a way to unlock the magic of that first book. I have to empower them to learn outside of a classroom setting, to convince them that they can take the reins of their education in a meaningful way if they begin to read. Starting small, as any child does, with the story books we have available could easily lead to reading newspapers or a better understanding of their text books. Accomplishing this goal for students ages 7-15 will be quite a challenge but it’s the focus of my remaining time in India. Any suggestions or ideas are welcome!
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