I grew up hearing the mantra, “readers are leaders,” but today far too many kids fall behind in reading and get left behind. Especially this past year. Kids who aren’t successfully reading at grade level by the third grade are four times less likely to finish high school. Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone. That’s a student every 26 seconds—or 7,000 a day, and most of it can be blamed on a history of poor reading. More than 30 million adults read below a fifth grade reading level.
This summer take the opportunity to take a young relative or friend to read at your local library or volunteer to read during story time like I did. It will bless you and the ears that hear. And pick up a book the next time you’re bored with Netflix. I promise you it’s always better than the movie.
