M.W. Jeans Academy Hosts Reading Marathon

On Thursday, March 4, 1999, M.W. Jeans Academy students were "lost in their books". The school hosted its annual reading marathon in conjunction with Council's READ IN '99. The elementary group held two sessions of uninterrupted sustained silent reading, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Students gathered in the gymnasium with sleeping bags, pillows, quilts, bean bag seats, etc., to read contentedly and comfortably for one hour. The primary children also participated in a session which involved being read to by others. The principal of the school, Ms. Debra Lush, was quite pleased with the participation of students as she felt that they thoroughly enjoyed the activity.

Literacy lecture series established by
The Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland

A new lecture series to promote literacy in the province began at Memorial University of Newfoundland, thanks to a donation from the province's Lieutenant Governor. The gift of $1,200 annually for five years from the Honourable Dr. A. M. House will provide funding to attract leading speakers and support the lecture events.

The Lieutenant Governor has made a public commitment to supporting remedies for illiteracy during his term in office. "Perhaps this is due to my upbringing in an outport where I had a special perspective from which to view the impact of little or no formal education upon people of average or even superior intelligence," he said in an address to the Rotary Club of St. John's on January 7. "For the most part, illiteracy condemns its victims to live at the lower end of the social scale and in an existence often below the so-called poverty line."

Dr. House said that far too few people recognize how very serious illiteracy is and what misery it causes. Across Canada, about 22 per cent of all persons aged 16 and over fall within the lowest level of literacy, and in Newfoundland it is considerably higher. Dr. House said he was particularly shocked to learn that over half of the 60,000 seniors in the province are at level 1 on the literacy scale, a point at which people are scarcely able to read and write.

The five-year series organized by Dr. Terry Piper, Dean of Education at Memorial University, will feature an annual lecture in the area of literacy.

"Literacy is the single most important issue in education and in society," said Dr. Piper. "Children who do not learn to read and write cannot participate in any other part of their education, and they thus fail."

Dr. Piper said learning to read and write must be acquired before gaining literacy in other areas such as mathematics. "Without education, people are unable to participate in society, particularly the rapidly-evolving and highly literate society that Canada has become."

The inaugural Dr. A. M. House Lecture on Literacy was given Tuesday, March 9, at 8:00 p.m. by Dr. Barry Saunders, Professor of English and the History of Ideas at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. The lecture, entitled Catching a Second Breath: A Way of Understanding Literacy, took place in Room E1020 in the Education (G. A. Hickman) Building, located on Memorial's St. John's campus. (See story on page 5).

Each lecture is open to the public. For further information please contact Dr. Terry Piper at (709) 737-8588