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A SHORT INFORMAL HISTORY OF A BIG SOPHISTICATED IDEA by Miles Beller In the beginning, a decade ago, when Christopher Forman thought about it, he realized he wanted to help children. But how? What would be of abiding value, would help a child from early on deep into adulthood?
Well, Chris’s own childhood -- indeed, his entire life – has been enhanced and enriched by books. Opening a book was opening the mind, affording access to places and ideas usual experience might preclude. By enabling children to better travel through text, Chris believed they would gain something of immeasurable worth. And as is true of many truly transformative ideas, this notion was simple yet profound. In a world increasingly captivated by hardware and hard drives, Chris saw that such developments were tools not replacements for solid reading skills. A t bottom, it was vital to give children struggling to make sense of sentences a determined way of improving their reading. Whether navigating directions on a web site such as this or experiencing the highs and lows of Harry Potter, children who were good readers would be most engaged. And so improving a child’s reading was the goal, whether on a digital monitor or on a paper page.
With this firmly in mind, Christopher Forman set out to build a nonprofit. And this evolved into the 3R Program: renovating shabby elementary school libraries into restorative reading centers, restocking shelves with new books, and pioneering a bold program for volunteers pairing them with students for one-on-one reading sessions.
 For the last ten years this has been The Wonder of Reading’s mission. Scratch "mission." It's too formal a term. Rather, it has been a grand and emotionally rewarding adventure. Uniting the many statistics and facts you will discover on our web site, underscoring The Wonder of Reading’s decade of history and achievement, is the human equation; the personal successes and sure accomplishments of students, reading partners, and teachers who every day play a central role in The Wonder of Reading. Our story is many stories. We trust you’ll stick around for these evolving stories in the ensuing chapters of our ongoing tale.
******* Click here for information about our upcoming 10th Anniversary celebration of reading – an event for preschool and elementary aged children and families at ArcLight Cinema in Hollywood -- featuring films based on children’s books, storytellers, food, fun activities, books and authors and more! |
