Blind Pig Reader Roy Pipes visits Martins Creek Elementary School
A special reading night was recently held at an elementary school in Appalachia. Local authors, educators, and other professionals gathered to read to children and their caregivers as an encouragement for the children to become life long readers. Most of the guest readers were local to the area.
Showing students that reading is important and personal success is possible is a worthwhile endeavor in my book.
Tipper
Appalachia Through My Eyes – A series of photographs from my life in Southern Appalachia.
When I was in second grade I was such a good reader that the teacher made me go to the third grade classroom and show them how it was done. Being born on Oct 1st, I was barely old enough to be in the class I was in, so most of the third graders were two years older than I was. Some of the kids who had been held back might have been three years older. That’s half a lifetime when you’re only 6.
I was given the opportunity to skip a grade because of my progress. When my parents asked me if I wanted to go from second to fourth grade, I wouldn’t do it. I was already the youngest kid in my class and the older kids hated me for shaming them. Now you want to throw me right in there amongst ’em? Do I look like a fool? Don’t answer that!
I believe one who can both read and enjoys reading has absolutely no boundaries for learning about life and the world.
God bless.
RB
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Tipper,
The picture of Roy Pipes standing in front of folks reminded me of him when he taught me back in 66-67. Some 20 years later, my oldest daughter got to enjoy what I did.
Tipper got me to reading alot more back when she started the Blind Pig and the Acorn. Her writings and talk about Appalachia captured my interests so much…Ken
What a great idea! Reading is a special gift and it’s wonderful that Roy Pipes and the others gave their time to support such a worthwhile event!
My motto: If you can read, you can do anything!
My parents read the “Little Golden Books” to me — so many times I had them memorized! It was then I made the connection between letters and words — after that I was often told to read them myself! I remember frustrating my mother one time when I asked her how to spell “E” and she told me “E;” but I didn’t understand that letters are only letters! My first-grade teacher, Mrs. Thompson (bless her heart) didn’t believe it when I told her I could read until I read a “sandwich” board standing next to (and over) me. For those who don’t recognize the term sandwich board: it’s two pieces of wood or paper connected by straps on the tops and sides; one puts the two boards on the front and back of themselves, thus making themselves into a sandwich. You can still see these is some towns as people advertise car washes, furniture stores, and real estate openings.
I love to read good books and I think my love of reading actually came from my Mother’s fantastic ability to tell stories to us when we were really young and make the story come alive. My father and his brothers loved books and his older brother would get books at the town library which was many miles from where they lived out in the country. After my parents married they would go to my father’s parents home to spend the night on the weekend just to hear his older brother tell the story from the book he had read. They all loved to read. No t.v.’s at that time. The little town I grew up in had a library right in the middle of town and I only lived a block and a half away. It was an easy walk. One of my cousins was talking to me lately and said, “you took me to the library in town and showed me how I could find a book and check it out to read.” She too loves to read. We most have been about 8 years old at that time.
My mother always taught us that reading people were usually smarter. It does improve your knowledge of so many things such as spelling, punctuation, and just general knowledge. Most of all books take one on an adventure that cannot usually be found in the real world.
I had to be very inventive to get my grandson to enjoy books. This resulted in a batch of books on worms, bugs, and other creatures. He got the binoculars to find the birds he read about in the books. Then there was the bug catcher where he would catch bugs from the garden and put them in a tiny cage. I daresay this was an education for me as well as him.
We lived in a coal camp during my very early years. There were bookcases in each room of the old schoolhouse . Unfortunately it was chock full of very old books, but they were a world of information. I would read for hours about the children from Holland, Spain, and other countries. The teacher would have to shoo me out for recess. It would be wonderful to have access to those very old books now. Reading on the web has largely replaced my first love of reading a good book, but I still read books by Appalachian authors
My mother read to me in utero, and constantly thereafter. The Bible, Bible story books, history, and children’s books were top on the list. She and my dad always read a lot. I could read for myself before I was 4 years old, and I still am a constant reader. I out-read my elementary school library, and the children’s section in the downtown public library. I had rare permission from the librarian to take out adult books because I had read everything in the children’s section. We have a library room in our home with floor to ceiling shelves packed full. I also have two Kindles full of books. I can’t imagine a life without books, and the worlds that they open up to us.
I’m grateful to see reading encouraged. I spent many happy hours on adventures, becaming one of the family in some books, laughed myself silly with humor…the list goes on and on.
The Library was my favorite place to go as a child. I took our children there and they loved it too.
Remember the ad, “Send me a man who reads!” (Of course these days one is supposed to use a gender-neutral word …..) I’ve always been a reader. My Mom was responsible for that. As a boy, I walked several miles round trip to go to the library. It was in a small white building underneath a big white oak. We called it ‘the white house’. I still remember the cool dimness and the smell of books. I felt rich to have so many to choose from.
I think it is tragic for children not to like to read. But they need to be led to quality. Good books add value. Poor books subtract value. I get aggravated if I’m tricked into trying to read something that takes value from me, whether it is wasted time or otherwise being left feeling ‘bumed out’.
BP&A posts add value and there is one ot more books in there somewhere !
We adopted our daughter at 14 months of age. We began reading numerous books to her the first day. As she asked questions we used the encyclopedia – sometimes for an hour or more as she saw pictures of something else to ask about. She was reading Readers Digest by kindergarten and telling the jokes at church. In addition to school work she would usually read two books per week from the local library. At 39 she still is an avid reader.
What a nice thing to do for those kids! Teach them to love reading and you give them the whole world.
I had a tough time with reading as a child but as a young adult I finally got it. Now I always have a book going. I would be lost without my books. I have a basket of books beside my bed. When I finish one book I pick another one from my stash and never miss a beat.
Thanks Roy and all the other contributors!
What a wonderful idea. Do you do this on a regular basis? All communities need to embrace this as a way to encourage children to read.
What a wonderful idea. Do you do this on a regular basis? All communities need to embrace this as a way to encourage children to read.
What a wonderful idea. Do you do this on a regular basis? All communities need to embrace this as a way to encourage children to read.
What a wonderful idea. Do you do this on a regular basis? All communities need to embrace this as a way to encourage children to read.
When I was small, on most nights, my mother gathered my grother and I together in my parents’ bed and read to us. I am convinced that this was a contributor to my love of reading and general curiosity about things. That was probably 60 years ago or more and it remains fresh in my memory.
Oh Tipper: I would have liked to be in attendance at this BOOK event. I hope all the children in attendance already have access to lots of ‘favorite’ books! Back in the ’40’s we had a ‘rolling library’ in the summer time which would come into the Matheson Cove.
The driver would drive out our dirt road – right to our house! To crawl up the ladder and see all those books in the back of the big truck was an unforgettable scene. Maybe that was one of the many experiences where I gained my inspiration to KEEP READING and LEARNING!
Sincerely, Eva Nell Mull Wike, B.S., M.S., PhD