The Cleveland Cavaliers have partnered with a local nonprofit agency to launch a reading program designed to close the gap in boys' and girls' reading ability.
Starting Point is a Northeast Ohio child care, early education and out-of-school-time resource and referral agency serving families and educators in Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga and Lake counties. Along with the Cavs' Scream Team and mascots Moondog and Sir CC, the organization kicked of the Read2Me program at the Family Life Child Care Center in Maple Heights.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, boys are one to one and a half years behind girls in reading on average. The language centers in young girls' brains are more active and develop more quickly than boys. In traditional early childhood classrooms, the curriculum is geared more to the ways girls learn. Read2Me uses male volunteers to emphasize the importance of reading for boys as well. "Most early childhood teachers are women," says Starting Point executive director Billie Osborne-Fears. We're bringing men into the classrooms to show boys that men value reading, too."
Read2Me is part of a pilot program initiated by Starting Point to look at new ways to stimulate learning and address the specific needs of boys in early childhood settings, particularly African American and Hispanic/Latino boys. Early results are promising and show that girls also benefit.
At the Family Life Child Care Center, the Cavs' Scream Team and mascots joined children for the program's launch, where they read books, played games, danced and interacted with the boys in the classroom. Starting Point is currently accepting male volunteers to be part of the program. "They read books that appeal to boys - books about animals, planes and superheroes from our library," says Osborne-Fears. "That gets the boys interested."
Interested volunteers should contact Constance Walker at Starting Point, 216-575-0061 x360 or constance.walker@starting-point.org. [Photo by Anissa Thompson]
