Raising Children to be Readers

Many parents believe that the best way to help their children to learn to read is to teach them the alphabet. However, studies have shown that the best things they can do begin when the child is born. Raising children in an environment of love allows for their physical, cognitive, social, and emotional developmental goals to be met. A 4-year-old who is socially well-adjusted, has self-control, is well-behaved, who knows what he wants to do, has enough self-confidence to do it, persisting until he has completed the task; and is able to carry on a conversation, is ready for school and will not find learning difficult.

The first requirement for these goals to be met is proper nutrition—preferably breast-milk for the first 6 months of life, followed by weaning onto a balanced diet. The second is for his mother to respond to his needs, so that he learns to trust, and to show affection. A neglected baby feels emotions of disappointment and anger, which later lead to defiance, intentional hurting and feelings of guilt.

The third is for adequate stimulation, so that the baby learns the properties of objects. He learns that objects and people are still there when he cannot see them, and develops the ability to hold an image of objects in his mind. This is the beginning of memory. He learns that he can be a causal agent and can predict the outcome of his actions. This is the foundation of an adult’s ability to make a plan, carry it out and judge its success. When a baby can creep he should be allowed to explore a safe environment. Parents could baby-proof part of the house instead of restraining the baby.

In the toddler years (ages 2 and 3), a great deal of development takes place. I’m choosing four things to emphasize. Firstly, the importance of fantasy play, which children use to come to terms with their physical and social environment. Many children talk to imaginary friends. (They are not talking to duppies, as some people think!). When they make imaginary friends scapegoats, they show that they are learning the difference between right and wrong.

Secondly, the purpose of punishment should be to develop self control. When a child has misbehaved, parents need to explain why the action was wrong. Discipline should be administered as close to the action as possible, should be appropriate but firm, and brief. A toddler can be given ‘time-out’. Where the child is in a loving home, the occasional slap can be effective, but intense, frequent, harsh punishment leads to emotional distress (including depression) which later leads to arguing, disobedience and destructiveness. Toddlers learn by imitation, so will copy caregivers who behave in a violent manner.

Many children all over the world, including Jamaica, suffer from undiagnosed, untreated post-traumatic stress disorder, resulting from abuse, loss of loved ones, fires and other disasters. In these children, the ‘wiring’ of the brain develops in such a way that they are on constant alert, and are unable to concentrate on school work. They need professional help.

Lastly, and of paramount importance for a child to be able to learn to read, is the development of language. Parents need to communicate with their children as much as possible, beginning at birth with non-verbal communication. By the time a child is 4 years old, he has learnt the grammatical structure and a sufficient number of words to be able to converse in his mother-tongue. While there are children who are bilingual in Creole and Standard English, the many who speak only Creole face the difficulty of acquiring literacy in Standard English. Much research has been done on this by Dr. Meta Bogle and Dr. Beverley Bryan (UWI).


A bedtime story


 I agree that one of the best ways for children to learn Standard English is to hear written stories read to them out loud, preferably every day. However, I doubt whether the parents of our at-risk students are able or willing to do this. Many of them are completely overwhelmed by day-to-day problems, and see nothing wrong with raising their children in the same way that they were raised. Studies have shown that mothers like these can be helped by social support, such as was given by the Rural Caregivers Programme and the Rural Family Support Organization operating in Clarendon.


Illiteracy in Jamaica is a national problem—it impacts all of us. Whole communities need to be involved, not just parents and teachers. For example, in addition to providing books, volunteer ‘reading aunts, uncles, big sisters and brothers’ could be on hand to read to at-risk children. Service Clubs, Churches and NGO’s need to mobilize to give social, emotional and economic support to the neediest families. Drama groups could present role-play, showing preferred methods of parenting.

The parameters of the solution to the literacy problem are much wider than simply teaching children to read.

Volunteering at Chetwood Memorial Primary School



Chetwood Memorial Primary School

Since September 2011, I’ve been helping some grade 2 children with reading at Chetwood Memorial Primary School. This school was started by Fransiscan Sisters in what is now the church hall. The current school is also built on land belonging to the Catholic Church. It is a government primary school with 4 streams in each of grades 1-6 with about 45 children in each class. The school is located near the centre of Montego Bay and accommodates children from various social backgrounds. Although it is now one of the more sought after schools, there are 150 children who qualify for free lunches.
   I offered to help Grade 2, because those children who enter grade 2 below the reading level for their grade, are unable to follow the text-books on which Grade 2 work is based. The Principal, Mrs. Campbell was most appreciative of my offer, saying, “We need all the help we can get.” Seven children were referred to me and I met them in three groups for half an hour each, one day a week. I wanted to recruit other volunteers to come on other days, but as it turned out, there was only one, a young man from Montego Bay Community College, who chose this avenue for his voluntary service. He had a positive influence on the children and I noticed a real improvement after a week when he came every day.

New block housing the library and computer room

    My philosophy when teaching reading is to teach with kindness – to respect, pay attention to and show affection to my pupils – and to praise frequently. I’m not a reading specialist, but have devised my method of teaching reading from research and experience. Children should hear, say, look at, and write—these 4 activities for every letter, word and sentence, using a mix of phonics, and word and sentence recognition. I also try to emphasize meaning and that the purpose of reading and writing is to communicate.

In teaching phonics, I find out what letter sounds they know and start where they are. Most of them know the consonant sounds, but need revision. The vowels are more challenging, as they have so many variants. I start with the short vowel sounds using flash cards, rhyming words and words starting with the same consonant, followed by long vowel sounds, then sounds as in er-ir-ur (the rooster’s call) ‘aw’, ‘ar’, ‘ow’, or, ‘oo’ and ‘ew’.

For ‘look and say’ words, I use home-made flash cards, which I also use for revising consonant sounds and for games. I found that Pelmanism, a game recommended for such children, was too challenging for them. Also, games, such as sound Bingo, have to allow for all of them to win. They take losing very hard.

I take ‘look and say’ sentences from their reading books, Literacy 1-2-3 books, sentences I write myself and some the children speak or write. I start with sentences such as “What is your name?” and “My name is ….” Then we write the sentences on strips of card and cut them up into words. Their challenge is then to identify the words separate from the sentence. After a while they can use these words to make new sentences.

Was I successful in assisting these children in learning to read? Yes and no. Of the seven, three progressed at a faster pace. One girl reached the point where I thought it would be more beneficial for her to remain in her class. To her that was a punishment - she passively resisted by downing her tools, so I took her back. Two other boys gave me the most trouble, with mischievous behavior, especially when they were together. I’m still trying to persuade one of them that, yes, he can learn to read – he had demonstrated that he could, but his progress was slow. He told me that his father beat him because he couldn’t read. No wonder he has negative attitudes towards reading! One girl had such poor attendance that she made little headway; while another needed special help, which I’m not qualified to give. However, Ms. Brown, the grade 2 coordinator, was appreciative of my efforts which she thought had made a difference.

Computer Lab

      Fortunately, Chetwood has a modern computer lab and an Academy of Reading programme, which they use with children in grade 3 and up. Children who haven't yet learnt to read get a second chance, and those who are already reading use it to improve their literacy skills.

A mural on the stairway

Why did I choose to volunteer to help children with reading? For some time, I’ve been pondering the causes of high illiteracy rate in Jamaica, and its social effects. Can we as citizens do anything to improve literacy? Since retiring, I’ve had a number of pupils wanting help with reading, and I wanted to see children in the school setting. My observations confirmed my view that children learning to read
    1. need individual attention every day (although I wasn’t able to commit to that, and their teachers aren't able to give that either), and
    2. need encouragement, praise and affirmation.
Together, we can fill these needs. I started with a new group of grade 2 students today. If any of you reading this would like to help, please let me know.
   Children also need access to plenty of books at their reading level. This presents a logistical challenge but is not impossible to achieve.

   The other vital ingredient in the reading recipe is motivation. Children who want to learn to read will (as long as they have no specific learning disability), but unfortunately many who lack this vital ingredient will not. While we can contend that improving literacy levels will lead to a more educated society, and improve the standard of living for all, some of the very families who want to improve their status, don't have the reading culture necessary to inspire their children.

from Book Community Board by Lucia Luz

Presenting Books donated by #1 Love Medusa Reunion



At Mt Alvernia Prep with Mrs. McPherson, Principal and Mrs. Frazer

 In July, persons visiting for Jamaica 50, donated copies of Delroy in the Marog Kindom to the school they used to attend, or another school of their choice. Now that the new school year has started, I had an incentive to arrange visits to schools to deliver the books. My first stop was Mount Alvernia Preparatory School where I presented books donated by Richard Lam and Robert Chin. There I talked to teachers about their book club and the problems that Jamaican and Caribbean authors have in getting their books known about and into schools.


With Mrs. Forrester

 On Thursday,  Sep 6, I visited St. James Preparatory School, where I read to Grade 6 from Delroy in the Marog Kingdom. The childen obviously enjoyed the excerpts and were full of questions. I presented to their teacher, Mrs. Forrester, the copies donated by Karen Lue and Audrey Tenn.

With Mrs. Dalley

The following day, which was being celebrated as International Literacy day, I read to grades 5-5 and 5-6 at Corinaldi Avenue Primary School. They too enjoyed the reading and I was sorry I didn't have more time to spend with them. I presented to Mrs. Belinda Dalley, Literacy Specialist, the book donated by Justin Lue.

Mr. Jones receiving a book

Monday, Sept 10, saw me at Barracks Road Primary School, where I spoke to the students at assembly about the importance of reading. I presented to Mr. Jones, Principal, the book donated by Pam Morris. After the presentation I visited all five grade 1 classes, each with forty-five students (down from fifty the previous year!). My message to them was that they should (1) read as much as they could; (2) study their spellings and (3) ask for help if needed. A few years ago, I would have put less emphasis on spelling, but given the inconsistencies of spelling and pronunciation in the English language, I have realized that studying spellings is a reliable way of learning to decode words, which after a period of time a child will recognize instantly.  However, it's not much use telling a child to study spellings if, when he gets home, he can't decipher the words on the list. Hence my suggestion to ask for help.
   I spoke for about ten minutes to each class, but even for that short time, I was unable to hold all their attentions. I don't think I had the attention of some of them at all. It was the first time I had been asked to give a 'pep-talk' to six-year-olds. In hindsight, I think it would have been better to read them a short story, with props, to illustrate that reading is to be enjoyed, and have a short Q & A session.  Given the number of children who have to be accommodated in limited space, I don't think the teachers have much option but to teach the children in the way that they do, but for some of the boys, this is clearly not best way to interest them in education. More opportunity for free movement and hands-on activities might suit them better.
   The final presention, for the time being, was made by Mrs. Fay Chin to Mrs. Campbell, Principal of Chetwood Memorial Primary School. This is the school where I volunteer to assist with reading - more about that in another post.

Mrs. Fay Chin donating my book to Mrs. Campbell at Chetwood.

Teaching English as a Second Language to Jamaican Children

I’m no linguist, so I can’t put forward an academic argument to support the moot that Jamaican patois, or creole, is a separate language from English, but my own experience tells me that it should be treated as such. If I attempted to speak patois, any Jamaican would recognize instantly that I am a not Jamaican by birth.

When I first arrived in Jamaica to teach, I couldn’t understand patois speakers, some of whom took delight in exploiting my ignorance. After about 6 months, I was able to follow some conversations, but I was strongly discouraged from attempting to ‘speak bad’, especially with my students who needed to learn correct English. As patois is difficult to learn and my attempts to speak it were greeted with peals of laughter, I gave up trying. More helpful people pointed to what I should listen for in patois, such as ‘oonu’ for ‘you’ plural, and the use of ‘dem’ after a noun to make it plural.

One of the many Ladybird books available today 

My next patois lessons came when my daughter started school. “She talks such nice English,” said the teacher after her first day. It was the last day she spoke such nice English for a while, but she gradually learnt the usefulness of both forms of communication. I subsequently started my own prep school, where I became fascinated by the process by which children learn to read.

There was no alternative to teaching reading in standard English. I used the Ladybird books and a mix of phonics, whole words and sentences. I made a point of listening to every child reading every day and keeping careful records of their progress. I remember the day when a little boy looked at the words in his book, then the picture and said, “See de bud deh”, when what was written was “Look at the bird.” He had seen the words before and been told what they were, but had translated them.


Today's Ladybird books are more multicultural than in the past


Further patois lessons came when I was teaching communication at Montego Bay Community College. Early in the course came a unit on Jamaica’s two languages, which I confess to not teaching very well. It was not until I retired and started writing stories with dialogue in patois that I felt I needed to know more. For the first story I wrote, I had my daughter correct my patois, but when I sent it to Joanne Johnson, in Trinidad, her first response was ‘Tame the patois.’ When doing an online course at UCLA and subsequently being part of an online critique group, the readers told me they couldn’t understand parts written in patois. It would be pointless to write books with dialogue comprehensible only to Jamaicans, and expect an international readership. As a compromise, I write my dialogue in non-standard English. This lets me off the hook in relation to improving my patois for the purpose of writing dialogue.

So, if patois is a separate language from English, and is the only language spoken by many pre-school children, doesn’t it stand to reason that English is their second language?

In his article ‘Stop demonising Patois -From a semi-lingual to a bilingual Jamaica’ in the Sunday Gleaner, August 26, 2012, Hubert Devonish professor of linguistics and coordinator of the Jamaican Language Unit, UWI, Mona, mentions a project undertaken by that Unit:

“In the Jamaican situation, a fully bilingual or dual-education programme would involve the use of both Jamaican and English as languages of education, in the same roles, side by side. This is what took place in a Ministry of Education-sanctioned Bilingual Education Project run in a Corporate Area primary school between 2004 and 2008 by the Jamaican Language Unit. Textbooks for mathematics, social studies, science and the language arts were translated into Jamaican. These were made available alongside the textbooks written in English….. The pupils learnt to read and write in both languages.” (my italics).

(Does he mean that non-readers were taught to read in both patois and English, or were they first taught to read in patois? I would welcome an opportunity to see material they used to teach reading.)

A fully bilingual programme as designed by Dr. Devonish would involve the preparation of a great deal of material and the training of thousands of teachers, which is not likely to happen any time soon. Furthermore, the suggestion of teaching children in patois has given rise to a flare-up of protest on the talk shows and in the print media.
There are other possible methods of teaching a second language, including ‘complete immersion’ in which all subjects are taught in the second language. There are schools in other countries where all students, who come from different language backgrounds, are taught in one language. In French-speaking parts of Canada, some children, whose home language is English, attend schools where all classes are in French.

What is the difference between this method and what obtains in Jamaican schools, where all classes are taught in standard English? I submit that it is in how children and teachers perceive the home language. The child who speaks only patois may be told he ‘talks bad’. He thinks he is talking the same language as his teacher, but is given the impression that there is something wrong with the way he expresses himself, thus lowering his self-esteem. An English-speaking child in a French-speaking school in Canada would not be given the impression that his mother tongue is inferior. I think from the outset, it should be explained to children that patois is their home language, the language they use to talk to their friends, the language of music lyrics and so on. The school language, English, is another way of expressing ideas, and is the language of books, of business and commerce, of science and engineering and which is spoken by hundreds of millions of people the world over.

Philip Clarke

Philip Clarke, lecturer in Communication Studies at Montego Bay Community College, carried out research into why some students of above average intelligence performed so poorly in CSEC English. He found that there was a link between how students feel and how they learn English – sensing that their home language, patois, was regarded as inferior lowered their self-esteem. He also found that they resented English, which they regarded as the language of the colonialists and oppressors. They saw the use of patois is an act of resistance by dub poets and singers. They regarded English as a subject to be studied rather than means of communication which they needed to master. His remedy for these attitudes was to include patois in his classes and then to focus on teaching them how to communicate effectively and appropriately. He also recommended that strategies be designed so that teachers in a creole-speaking environment can effectively teach students to communicate, be proud of who they are and have a love of learning.

This I feel should be the substance of our discussion on this subject, with the emphasis on how to teach communication, not on whether patois is a separate language from English.

Delroy and the Marog Princess on Amazon

Delroy and the Marog Princess is now available on Amazon. Click on the link to get to my Amazon page, where you are invited to look inside the book, and of course purchase!

There were a few obstacles to overcome, including not being able to upload the cover. Fortunately, my illustrator, Erold Bailey, was able to upload it for me. Thank you, Erold. I had set the price at $5.99, so was taken aback when I saw that it was on offer for $7.99. Discovering that there is a $2.00 charge if you are not on the continental US, I dropped my price to $3.99, so you can buy it for $5.99.
The formatting for Amazon differs from formatting for Smashwords in several ways. In the building of the Table of Contents, Amazon uses the 'heading' method, while Smashwords builds it from hyperlinks and bookmarks. For Amazon, you put in page breaks, but not for Smashwords. For Amazon, you save your file as an HTML  document for Amazon, but for Smashwords as a Word 1997-2003 document. The methods of uploading and previewing also differ slightly. You can have your book on both Amazon and Smashwords, but you need to indicate on the Smashwords Channel Manager that you don't want them to distrubute to Amazon. If you want to opt for Kindle Direct Publishing Select, instead of the regular KDP, you can't publish anywhere else.
  I would recommend anyone wanting to self-publish to do their own formatting for both Amazon and Smashwords. It gives you more control over your work and of necessity you have to re-read one more time and pick up any errors that may have slipped through your previous edits. If a non-technical person like me can do it, so can you!

'Delroy in the Marog Kingdom' at the Granville Reading Program

This is a follow-up to the guest blog with Natalie Bennett on the Summer Reading and Arts Program. On July 23, I went with  friends and family to the Granville Community Centre, where we were warmly greeted by Jakki Strong-Rhoden, the co-ordinator of the program. She suggested that we start by gathering a group of children around each of us at different tables and  read age-appropriate material to them.  We observed some of the problems Natalie mentioned, especially the inattention and tendency for the children to get confrontational with each other.

   After about half an hour, most of the children enrolled in the program had arrived, so it was time for me to read from Delroy and the Marog Kingdom. This story is actually intended for 9-13 year-olds, so I was not expecting the younger ones to concentrate for long. However, as I began by introducing them to the frog who says "Ribbit, ribbit" and asking if frogs could talk, in order to explain that this story is not only fiction, but is also fantasy, their attention was engaged. Then an 11-year-old boy, acting as Delroy, put the frog in the pot and another boy, acting as Mario, clamped on the lid. Acting as Delroy's mama, I screamed when I opened the pot and saw the frog. I also read from the chapter 'River Mumma' and of Delroy's conversion into a marog (a type of frog). I hope that the parts of the story I read were enough to motivate the older children to read the whole story for themselves.


Presenting a copy of my book to Jakki


Thanks to Dr. Doris Channer-Watson, who, in addition to buying a copy of Delroy in the Marog Kingdom, paid for a copy to be given to a worthy recipient, I was able to donate it to the Granville Summer Programme. People have suggested to me that I should donate copies of my book to schools. I would love to be able to do this, but I cannot afford to, as I myself have to purchase them. I do not have a stack of free books to give away! When you buy a book, the author receives only a small percentage. The rest goes to the publisher, who has paid for the cover design, editing, typesetting, printing, shipping and warehousing; and to the bookshops who have all their overheads to cover. Neither the publisher, nor author nor bookshop can afford to give away books, unless it is for promotional purposes, from which they expect to get some returns.  However, if anyone reading this post would like to purchase a copy of my book to be given to a school, I would be happy to read to the children from my book at the same time as it is presented to the school.

Guest blog with Natalie Bennett on the Granville Summer Program

Natalie D. A. Bennett is a feminist scholar, educator and book artist who hails from Granville, St. James (Jamaica) and currently lives in Chicago, IL (USA). She has been engaged in community work for many years on a variety of issues including developing adult literacy classes for Jamaican immigrants in NYC; working with Sudanese refugee women in Nebraska to create community gardens, and doing advocacy for LGBT Caribbean immigrants in New York City. She currently serves on the board of Global Girls, Inc. an art-based youth development organisation for African American girls, and as Director of the Granville Reading & Art Programme. She occasionally blogs at myalweed.wordpress.com. You can reach her at gelede@gmail.com.

   I am in awe of Natalie’s creativity and insight, her energy and her zeal. This is her account of how she started the Granville Reading and Art Program, and her hopes for the future:

   Over the past seven years or so, I've become much, much more attuned to several troubling aspects of Jamaican life: 1) how few options children of the poor and working classes seem to have in terms of how they can spend their time; 2) the disconnect between how art is made and presented and who gets to participate in and benefit from this process; 3) the way that violence and aggression seem to be the default response in just about every interaction; 4) how personal opinion, hearsay and nationalist sentiments seem to have replaced interest in reading about and understanding worlds different from one's own; and 5) how ordinary people seemed to have become so disempowered and disconnected from their own sense of what is important to them. For me, all of these are connected to the absence of several types of literacy.
I have long felt that there must be some way that I could put my skills, talents and knowledge to use for the public good. To me, identifying the "what" and "how" would emerge over time. I recall a conversation in 2009 when I was in Jamaica where I felt compelled to respond to the following statement
"I don't know why these children don't want to read; I used to love reading as a child. All these children want to do is fight." I said, "well, if they had books at home to read, if books weren't so expensive, and if adults didn't spend so much time using books as punishment, I bet they'd have a different attitude." Even though I was roundly chastised for supposing that children of working-class and poor backgrounds even cared about books, the kernel of an idea was sown.
   Later that year, I returned to Jamaica loaded with books and reading material engaged in what I called "Labor of Love". My stash included children's books I had purchased from "dollar stores" and resale shops, 'decodables' that I had copied from my son's textbooks or downloaded from websites, various puzzles for adults, 500 copies of a mini-book I had created using work donated from friends who are writers, and lots of crayons and pens. I distributed the materials on the streets of Kingston, St. Ann's Bay and Montego Bay to whoever wanted them. I did this in Granville as well; I grew up there, and so en route to visit relatives, I engaged children and adults wherever I encountered them. In 2010, I repeated the "Labor of Love" project three more times, introducing more visual art into the mix. In March 2010, I did a public art project in Half-Way-Tree where I invited the young men sitting around on a Sunday morning to make art with me. They were only too happy to do so, and complained that I didn't bring enough pastels! I also held a "sidewalk school" with children in downtown Kingston for two weeks in August 2010. I showed up every day to read, talk and work with the children of the vendors who were in the area. We did worksheets, played with flashcards, made drawings, worked with finger paints and rubber stamps to create pictures and tell stories. The children even created a small exhibition of their work on the wall of one of the stores. At one point when the group had grown to almost 20 children, we went to the nearby Tastee and setup shop.
The enthusiastic response from the children and their parents was overwhelming, and I started to conspire about how to re-create this experience for them, right there in downtown Kingston. I even inquired about the unoccupied building in front of which we held 'class' on some days. I imagined a community learning centre where vendors and other adults could learn to read, youth could work together to create art projects that explored the issues they were struggling with, children would have a place to do their homework and get other enrichment.
   On a whim, I decided to write an article for the Gleaner in October 2010. Ronnie Thwaites, who was then a talk-show host, interviewed me about the article and asked me the question: "what would it take to bring something like what you did to scale"? At the time, I rejected his question, and said that there was no need to do that. Instead, what needed to happen, in my view, was for every community no matter where they were located, to have some kind of space that fostered the love of reading and engaging with ideas in a more creative way. That space could be in the church, sports club, health clinic, wherever. It could be temporary or permanent; it could be a 1-person show or it could be an organisation. What mattered was that everyone - no matter where they were - would be connected to such a space, whether they were volunteers, donors, participants, researchers, etc. To me, the concept is very simple. If there is a gap in the lives of children and youth, you fill it. It doesn't take much more than interest in doing so. Later that year, I returned to Jamaica to do another "Labor of Love" project. It was then that I went to visit Granville All-Age School and had a conversation with the principal, Ann-Marie Brown. In addition to giving her some of the books and materials I had with me, I posed the question: “How can I help?”I was still bothered about the closing of the Granville branch of the Jamaica Library Service in the 1980s with nary an apology or attempt to replace it since. Doing literacy work in this community seemed like a good counterpoint to such: if neither the government nor community leaders were going to advocate for children's access to books, then I didn't see why I couldn't do something to address that, no matter how small.

Out of that conversation came the design for "Summer Arts Workshop", which is an arts-based reading program. The idea is to designate time in the summer months when nothing else is going on, and to give children unmediated access to books where they can read what they like, be read to, practice various reading and thinking skills, by creating works of art that they can use to create and write their own stories. While there is much concern for how children will do on standardized tests like the Grade 4 Literacy Test and Grade 6 GSAT, the program is not concerned with those. The focus is on providing a nurturing space where children can develop a love of reading, where reading becomes a habit that they are happy to feed, and which can be fed without them having to leave their community to go downtown Montego Bay, and whether or not they are in school. Moreover, since summer is also less stressful, parents can be drawn into the reading experience through a variety of strategies, whether sending home books and asking them to read with their children, or having them volunteer in the day program.

The next issue: how to make this happen?

After throwing myself into the research and coming up with a design (a summer program, arts integrated into reading, parent workshops, etc.), then came the challenge of actually pulling it off. I was teaching a preceptorial course "Jamaica: Beyond Sun, Sex and Sea" for first-year students at DePaul University. As part of their final project, the students had to do a group project where they did some research on education in Jamaica and then used that information to design a drive for art supplies.

Easily accessible books for the younger children

I ran a book drive at my son's school and put an ad in my community newspaper. I received more than 5,000 books. One of the graduate students in the Women's & Gender Studies Program coordinated the itemizing and packing of the donations for shipment to Jamaica. I raised money by using one of the crowd-sourcing sites, and tapping into my extended network of colleagues, friends and family. Those funds paid for the purchase of materials such as the reading mats, bins, and the shipment of the supplies. I used my personal monies to fund the rest of the program (transportation, food, stipend, etc.).The Ministry of Education, Food for the Poor, Globe Insurance, Celect Supply, Community Security & Justice Programme (CSJP) and Social Development Commission (SDC) provided in-kind support.

2011 was the pilot year, which consisted of 50 children (ages 4 to 17 years), five volunteers, one paid staff person, as well as myself. I served as the lead instructor. I wanted to see what it would take to make a program like this happen. Summer Arts Workshop is conceived as a discrete program unit of the Granville Reading & Art Programme, which is a 5-year demonstration project. (Another program unit being developed is Ready! Set! Read! A reading program at the health clinic which targets children birth-6 years old and their parents.) During 2012-2016 the project will be doing lots of experimentation in Granville to figure out what the children respond to, how to get parents more involved, etc.

At the end of the 5-year period, I will hire someone to analyse the data and to develop a set of recommendations for how the programs can go forward. I really see myself as facilitating a process, helping to create the space where children and youth can find a healthy, safe space to be themselves and to get what they need educationally and intellectually, and where new leadership can emerge that serves the needs of the whole community. I don't expect to be much in the foreground after the 5-year period, because I believe that if these initiatives are to succeed, they have to be owned, nurtured and sustained by the community that they are planted in.
   Learning some lessons from last year, I pulled resources together in a number of ways:
a virtual book drive via Amazon;
a 1-week book drive that netted more than 3,000 books;
donations from my university and the local arts supply store;
materials I have been gathering since last year; and
active solicitation for support among local entities, including working with Donna Spence, Lecturer in Art at Sam Sharpe Teachers' College, to put the curriculum together.
   Children hear about the program through fliers that are distributed at Granville All-Age and around the community, word-of-mouth, and direct recruitment by community members who know of children who could benefit from a program like this. Registration took place in the week before the program began, but at least half of the children showed up during the first week with their parents. The number of children is capped at 60. There are some issues in terms of adequate furniture and space, but the Coordinator has been very creative and the children very patient. By next year, I expect to have adequate tables and chairs for all the children.

This year, I hired a Project Coordinator and a Community Outreach Coordinator. Two persons were assigned by the National Youth Service. The main art instructor a recent graduate from Sam Sharpe Teachers College. Volunteers were also directed through outreach done by the Granville Community Development Committee (SDC) and Granville Seventh Day Adventist Church.

A rug is a comfortable place to sit and read

Celect Hotel & Restaurant Supplies, CitySports, and Bill Craig Insurance Co. have been very supportive and have not needed much convincing to get on board. Because there needs to be a local structure in place, I've been identifying community members who are deeply committed to education and to the development of youth. It's amazing - all I have had to do is ask and I get names! The idea is to create an independent council whose sole purpose is to advocate for as well as create educational opportunities for youth in Granville. A library is already on the list of things they want to accomplish, so I'm very happy.

Still no support from national entities, so I'm paying out of pocket again this year. Based onlast year's experience, the reluctance of national entities to support the program seem related to a larger structural problem: all decision-making about how resources will be distributed happens in Kingston. Aside from the implicit bias created by that setup, there doesn't seem to be much support or advocacy for non-Kingston
educational programs, especially those that aren't school-based. So,I now realise that there is a lot of education that I and others need to do in order to get corporations to understand their role in producing an educated and literate society.

On top of that is way that Granville is being actively stigmatized through media reportage. The notion that Granville is equivalent with homicides and scamming is the result of careless and negative reportage. It is a community that's been decimated by migration, divisive politics as well as systematic disinvestment (as I noted recently, the best way to measure 'progress' in Granville is to look at what has left the community, not
what has come into it). The negative reportage has certainly fed into the community's image of itself, so that people from up the hill don't want to come down the hill because they are afraid. I hope that the program is able to grow and be an even stronger force in presenting a different image of what is possible when community folks come together to build something for themselves.

The feedback is generally good. Based on last year and right now, both the parents and children are disappointed that it doesn't go on for the entire summer. If there are any complaints, it's from the children (and their parents) who are concerned about the fighting that occasionally takes place. The irony, of course, is that these are the same children who are engaging in the fights, and the same parents who are also coming to the center to threaten and confront other children. As a result of the children's inability to manage their emotions effectively, a huge part of what happens everyday concerns conflict resolution and teaching children ways of expressing themselves in non-violent or non-confrontational ways, avoiding conflict as well as how to negotiate their own safety without harming others. As you canimagine, this is a tall task when their lives are mired in violence of all kinds. But, as we keep reminding them, in order for the program to be a safe and nurturing space that they enjoy coming to, each of them has to commit to keeping it that way. And that means we have to teach them how to manage their emotions. So, next year, I'm definitely bringing someone on board who knows art therapy or who has a counseling background.

In all, there's a lot of work to do. Next year, recruitment and training of staff is a priority, getting better furniture and tightening up the curriculum. I'm happy that I was able to step away and allow folks to take charge of the program this year. And I'm very excited - and challenged - by the work that lies ahead.

You can read more about Natalie’s work and an entertaining account in her blog of the trials she went through in 2011, to get the program off the ground.