Literacy is the key
I love my job, because it often puts me into contact with some extraordinarily bright people. Yesterday was a case in point when I attended CREED Seminars‘ “Educating with the Middle in Mind” conference at the Radisson Hotel. CREED is a new client of ours and the conference reinforced why I am so glad to be working with them.
The conference attracted about 450 teachers and school administrators from across Canada. There was a buzz of excitement from the participants because CREED’s speakers are among the most highly regarded in their field. All of them were focused on helping our teachers deliver a higher standard of education … and for me, that is the best possible use of our collective time and resources.
Our job for CREED to develop a media relations program for their conference and their speakers. We were pleased that CBC Radio jumped at the chance for an interview with keynote speaker Dr. Todd Whitaker. It’s somewhat disappointing that speakers of this quality didn’t draw more coverage from local media, as it’s a rare instance that we have easy access to people like this all at once… but that is a digression into the sometimes mercurial world of ‘what makes news’.
We’re continuing to pursue media coverage for CREED’s speakers by direct outreach to long lead trade parenting and education publications. Judging by the quality of the stories we’re pitching, I expect we’ll be successful with media that focus on these issues.
We’ll be pitching the story, for instance, of Dr. Sharon Faber, an expert in improving literacy rates in our schools. If a child isn’t reading and writing well by the time he or she enters the middle years (Grade 5-8), then that child is in big trouble of falling further and further behind, and becoming what we euphemistically call ‘at risk’ (shorthand for drug addicted gang members).
She offers some excellent insights into how to reach kids and help them become literate. For example, often the curriculum our schools follow is based on content that has no relation to the lives of our most disadvantaged children. We need to help them learn to read using their own vocabularies. Once engaged and once these kids have the tools to read and write, then they also will have the skills to learn and expand their horizons and thrive.
