Literacy:

Verlyn Klinkenborg addresses the value of reading aloud in today's New York Times. The article is well worth reading by anyone interested in education, whether teachers and administrators or parents. In fact, it is more important that parents read and consider Klinkenborg's argument. School officials at any level will do little without being pressured into it by parents and government.

The practice of reading aloud along with being read to, not only in childhood but throughout adulthood has been demonstrated to enhance literacy anectdotally, but no long term studies exist. Some group should be envolved in such a study, which should cover at least a thirty-year period and envolve a large test group over a significant educational and economic base.