In Providing Our Youth With the Most Important Skill of All

How would you communicate with others, on social media or in workspaces without the ability to read? How could you achieve higher levels of education? How can you assist your children with their studies especially in this time of homeschooling? How can you vote? How can you use a computer or smartphone?

In fact, reading is the key to nearly everything — and for everyone, from the everyday person to those with celebrity status, it is a necessary tool.

What do Jill Biden and Actresses Oprah and Dolly have in common?

Oprah Winfrey considers books to be her personal path to freedom. Dolly Parton believes in reading so much that she gives away books. Each of these highly regarded people knows that in order to grow, succeed, and become who they are today, they needed to not only read, but comprehend the stories of those who came before them.

Dolly Parton once said, “Because authors are my rock stars, I wanted their work to fire our imagination.” Dolly understands the value that books have to offer. Oprah has stated you have to insist on 15 to 30 minutes every day to read. She emphasizes that children need to see you reading. She has stated that over the course of her life, books have helped her know that she was not alone and that books were her personal freedom.

Oprah Winfrey and Dolly Parton get it — and consider what they have been able to do. Not only are they friends, but they share something even greater than the fact that they both share the screen as movie stars in the world of actors and actresses, Oprah starred in 15 films including The Butler, the Color Purple, and The Bee. Dolly starred in 9 to 5 , Steel Magnolias, Coat of Many Colors, Miss Congeniality 2, Gnomeo & Juliet, A Country Christmas Story and Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice.

They are entrepreneurs, change makers, teachers, storytellers and accomplished authors. They both lived in Tennessee. Oprah even had a full scholarship to Tennessee State University. They both received high-recognition awards. Dolly received the Medal of Arts and Oprah received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. They had their own talk shows, Hello, I’m Dolly and The Oprah Winfrey Show. They are major philanthropists and one of their greatest gifts is giving back to millions of young people around the world by encouraging them through reading.

Even the next first lady of the United States, Jill Biden, has discussed reading until 2 in the morning and how visiting the library was one of her favorite things to do as a tween. Jill has stated that she believes there is a connection between reading and writing. She recently wrote a book called Joey: The Story of Joe Biden, about how her husband overcame struggles in his life to become the next President of the United States. Jill teaches, and has written several other books which placed her on The New York Times list as a best selling author. Other books she has written include Don’t Forget, God Bless Our Troops and Where the Light Enters: Building a Family Discovering Myself. She also joins Oprah and Dolly in acting roles when she played herself on Lifetime’s Army Wives.

Towson, Tubman, Great Teachers and You

The Tubman Family Literacy Endowment joins Oprah, Dolly and Jill Biden in the commitment to educate and help as many young people as possible — to help build a love for reading and an understanding of the doors that can be opened by knowing how to read. The Tubman Endowment at the Towson University Reading Clinic supports young people of all ages, and pays tribute to the legacy of Harriet Tubman, teaching and the importance of reading.

Harriet Tubman’s legacy of perseverance, determination, bravery and service inspired matriarchs in the Tubman family, lifelong champions of readers, to dedicate their careers to literacy. Believing in the transformational power of education, they shared the gift of learning with thousands of students struggling to read with the foundation to succeed through literacy. If you recall Harriet Tubman had difficulty in reading. She was once able to escape capture because her captors were looking for someone who could not read and she held up a book in front of her face. Thank goodness she held it up the right way. She had signs all around her identifying the price that would be paid for anyone that turned her in. She had help to guide her as she guided others to freedom.

The Endowment provides support for the Towson University Reading Clinic which extends services to families with need. Contributions are used for on-campus programs as well as outreach initiatives including family literacy events and off-site summer reading clinics in neighborhoods with a lack of resources to help the residents move forward and advance their status for themselves and their families.

You Can Change The World, Too

Through contributions to the Endowment over 3,000 students and their parents have been served through the Reading Clinic in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. The teachers in the Graduate Reading Program have become reading specialists. These teachers work one-on-one with students to provide an assessment of their reading strengths and needs and develop and deliver a custom instructional program for each student. Teachers provide workshops for the parents, develop literacy projects for families to use at home and prepare a written case study detailing based on the skills learned during the assessment and instruction. Fees are kept to a minimal amount due to contributions from people who care about reading and the transformational effect it can have on a student’s life.

Many parents report having their own struggles with reading or not having the skills or confidence to help their children with their studies at home. Teachers at the Clinic send home collaborative literacy activities that involve the entire family such as reading together stories and poems, playing reading games, working through do-it- yourself crafts and even reading recipes to prepare food.

Oprah travels the world but she has connections to the Maryland area where Towson University Reading Clinic is located. She worked as a news anchor in Baltimore, a few miles away from Towson and met her long time friend @MayaAngelou, another advocate of reading and the spoken word among her many talents, in Baltimore. Coincidentally, Oprah was in a movie called the BEE movie and bees are represented in a novel tool used at the Towson University Reading Clinic called the Bee-Bot sequencing robot which helps students with learning disabilities related to writing. Your contributions allow this tool to help a greater number of students achieve success.

Jill Biden continues to teach at a university in Virginia and may be the only wife of a Vice President to continue to work in a paid position during her husband’s time of serving. As a lifelong educator and the first Italian American to become First Lady, Jill realizes the exponential impact of reading, writing and education. Her commitment allows her to continuously pour into the lives of students who need these skills to move forward in life.

The Reading Clinic has a continuous need for impactful literacy tools and resources to help prepare students for the 21st century. Contributions to the endowment enable more students to use these helpful tools and advance their reading — and these contributions from people like you are the only support the clinic receives.

Reading Can Take You to Great Levels of Success

Neither Oprah, Dolly nor Jill Biden grew up with a silver spoon in their mouths but they surprised and surpassed many. Oprah went on to have the highest rated tv program of its kind in history and Dolly became one of the most successful country singers in history. Dolly is credited with recording over 3,000 songs. Both paths to success required a significant amount of reading. Oprah’s father, a strong advocate of reading, required that she complete book reports that were not even assigned by her school. Her grandmother taught her to read before the age of three. Oprah stressed the importance of reading in the academic curriculum she helped design and made sure to create a stellar library for the schools she built in South Africa, including the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.

Both Oprah and Dolly’s legacies continue into the 21st century as they have created new initiatives to give back, demonstrating the importance of reading. Oprah created a movement to get excited about books with her reading book club, and she continues to recommend books which encourage people around the world to share in the love for reading. Her book club is credited with the sale of over 55 million copies around the world and her groundbreaking magazine will be relaunched in the digital media arena. Oprah even recommended the book The Underground Railroad about Harriet Tubman’s life by Colson Whitehead as one of her recommended books. Recently, she announced her new show The Oprah Conversation on Apple TV which will feature a variety of guests including best-selling authors like Ibram X Kendi. Oprah also supported the non-profit, Saddle Up and Read, founded by Caitlin Gooch which connects kids love of reading with the equine community through a relationship with horses.

Dolly created an innovative program called the Imagination Library which ensures that every child receives a free high-quality book to read, regardless of economic status, from infancy to age five. She founded the program in 1995 and started in Tennessee but has a current distribution of over 135 million copies across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Republic of Ireland. Dolly recognized how important the first three years of the development of a child’s mind can be and decided to positively ensure success for each child in her program by stimulating the imagination through reading. She recently brought Steven Colbert to tears on his television program as she sang one of her songs while promoting her new book Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics. She has her own image challenge on Facebook, LinkedIn , Instagram and Tinder. She just collaborated with the Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb for a release of the popular “Words” which has been recorded by various artists including Elvis Presley and Rita Coolidge.

Jill Biden co-founded the Book Buddies program to assist children in reading at age four. This program provided financial support for low-income children who could not afford to purchase reading materials to help them advance in life. In addition, she has served as an English teacher and reading specialist, and has a Master’s degree in reading from West Chester University, a second Master’s degree from Villanova University and a Doctorate in education from the University of Delaware. In addition to being a military mother, grandmother, and wife, one of her most impactful roles was serving as the Second Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017.

Reading Affects the Global Economy

A lack of reading skills not only affects the individual but also the largest concerns of society in general. An inability to read can be passed down to future generations, limiting their ability to support themselves and leading to a reliance on government programs. Illiteracy can cause students to isolate and avoid social interactions which are necessary for healthy relationships. Health issues can increase due to a lack of understanding of signs to prevent accidents, text on prescriptions to help with physical health and an inability to contribute to the family, community, and society as a whole. The inability to read has also been linked to poverty, unemployment, long-term illnesses, dependence on government programs for support, lost business and wealth creating opportunities, inadequate high-tech skills to compete globally and untapped potential to make significant contributions to society.

Reading, Reality TV, and American Idol

The importance of reading appears even on reality TV. We all remember the courageous American Idol 3 winner Fantasia who admitted that at the time she won, she barely knew how to read and pronounce words. She memorized words to songs after she heard them. She signed contracts without knowing what was in them. Her decision to become a stronger reader came from her desire to want to read to her daughter. Can you imagine all the documents she had to sign on the way to becoming a platinum-selling singer who has sung at events all over the world? How scary to not read the contracts and know that your future was in the words in the contract that was not read.

So many things could have gone wrong. She could have received less money than she was due. She could have signed up to perform more work that she was physically capable of performing. She was in a very vulnerable spot just like many people today who we know — even though we do not know they are hiding this secret. She sought help through tutors and achieved her goal but it took time, effort and a support team.

This is the work carried out by Tubman Family Literacy Endowment through your contributions.

Be the Change You Want to See

We are like Oprah, Dolly and Jill Biden in our desire to see people succeed and develop into citizens who can read, learn and contribute to society. We do not want our young people to start out with the limitation of not being able to read because there are so many joys of life that require this basic skill. Reading is key to how we advance to higher levels and extend our reach to meet opportunities around the world.

Change lives through literacy by supporting the Tubman Family Literacy Endowment at Towson University’s Reading Clinic. You can learn more about the Tubman Family Literacy Endowment by calling 410-967-2009 or emailing Director Kathleen Hider at khider@towson.edu.

http://www.towson.edu/GIveToTubmanLIteracyEndowment