Nevadans take to reading aloud to area students

David Renzi

Thursday, April 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Three-month-old Alexander is looking up at his mother from his baby carriage. He's wide awake and happy, but the expression on his face is unmistakable. It's saying: "What I wouldn't give for a little John Dos Passos."

"We already read to him," Kim Perron says. "I know he doesn't understand the words, but he understands the rhythmic and calming quality. It puts him to sleep, which isn't such a bad thing."

The Perrons started reading to Alexander when he was a month old.

"And we'll keep reading to him until he won't let us anymore," she says. "My husband (a veterinarian) reads him medical journals. He doesn't seem to mind."

This is National Library Week; Wednesday was National Read-Aloud Day. It's been an official day since 1958, and it's a big day for Perron, a Junior League member who proposed the formation of "Read-Aloud Nevada!"

The Junior League-sponsored program seeks to encourage parents to read aloud to their children and place volunteer readers in elementary school classrooms to read to children who may not have a one-on-one reading experience at home.

"The goal is to acclimate kids to reading as much as possible, primarily those who attend at-risk schools and have lower reading scores," says the Junior League's Stephanie Stallworth.

Junior League recruits, trains and places volunteers in schools to read on an ongoing basis, and also provides the books. Stallworth says more than 50 have taken the hourlong training session that teaches them proper reading techniques, such as holding the book correctly so the children can see the pictures.

"Each of them has agreed to read one hour a week for 10 weeks, so that's 500 hours of reading time," Perron says. "Each reads to between six and eight kids an hour. That's 3,000 to 4,000 times a child has been read to who wouldn't have been read to this year without the program."

The "Read-Aloud Nevada!" program started in October and is in place at Rundle, Sunrise Acres and J.T. McWilliams. They are among 30 local at-risk elementary schools that scored in the 40th percentile or less in reading skills, Perron says.

"We don't think the scores are any worse than any other city, but we think Las Vegas is a great city, and (the scores) should be better."

Two years ago, Booker scored in the 8th percentile.

"If kids cannot read by the fourth grade, there's a good chance they'll grow up to be adults that can't read," Perron says.

Conversely, elementary schools in more affluent areas, such as Summerlin and Green Valley, score in the 70th percentile.

Perron says the schools contacted Junior League about the program, but it's left to the teachers to decide if they want to use the volunteer readers.

"Once we go into the schools, we find there are more teachers that want us than we have volunteers," she says, adding that teachers choose which students need the most help. Volunteers meet with either one child or with small groups of usually no more than three.

The program encourages parents to read aloud to their children because it's unreasonable to expect teachers to do it for them. It's also unreasonable to expect parents to read aloud consistently. "Read-Aloud Nevada!" fills the void, Perron says.

There are typically three reasons why parents don't read to their children: They don't have the time, they don't read well themselves, they're not good parents, she said.

Perron likens it to a cycle of poverty. Once it begins, it's difficult to stop.

"How well they read directly relates to how well they do in school, which is directly related to future earnings potential," she says, adding that reading failures can translate to school failures, teen pregnancy and juvenile delinquency.

"So many of our parents don't read to their children," says Connie Smith, Rundle's reading specialist.

In addition to exposing them to reading, the program provides a model for basic reading techniques, such as reading left to right and top to bottom -- "elementary things that children need explained to them over and over," Smith says.

On Wednesday, the Junior League recruited Treasure Island pirates to serve as celebrity readers and help Rundle students celebrate National Read-Aloud Day.

Sonny Tipton, a charter Treasure Island pirate, chose Dr. Seuss' "The Sneetches and Other Stories" because "there are some good lessons in there."

Chief among them is that it isn't the way you look, but the content of your character that counts. Seuss uses what he calls "Sneetches" to make his point. Some have stars on their bellies (which, judging by their smiles, constitutes some badge of honor) and some don't (which, judging by their frowns, is a total disgrace).

"In the end it doesn't matter if you have a star or not, because the ones that don't are just as capable as the ones that do," Tipton says.