The End of the Story?

This morning, under the heading of Early Childhood Education:

Howard County kids lose access to Dolly Parton’s free books program, Maya Lora, Baltimore Banner

The loss of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library program will mean less books for Howard County kids. Photo credit: Ulysses Muñoz/The Banner

I learned a lot about how Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library works by reading this article. I should have known that there was more to it than free books magically appearing because Ms. Parton is able to use her professional income and visibility to make it happen. The Imagination Library, which has brought 287 million books into the hands of children for over thirty years, is the result of many collaborative partnerships across the country.

Here in Howard County, the Bright Minds Foundation has been the local partner which has administered the program. 

The numbers are smaller, but just as meaningful, in Howard County, where Bright Minds has given over 97,000 books to nearly 4,300 kids since 2019.

I’m not surprised that recent cuts in government funding have led the Foundation to decide that this book program is no longer sustainable. Isn’t that the sort of news we are reading all the time now? 

I am horrified and deeply upset. 

I have loved books my whole life. I was privileged to grow up in a family where books were given to me as gifts. 

Books are our friends. Scientific studies and anecdotal observations show that poor children have very little exposure to books in the home, if at all.  It is one of the significant strikes against them when they begin school.  The seeds of school success, fostered through many a bedtime read-aloud, are unknown to them.

Our schools have media centers, and our county has wonderful libraries. But I can tell you from personal experience that nothing can replace the feeling of having a beautiful book of your very own: your book, to read, and read again; to bring for Show and Tell; to sleep with, to dream about, and wake up with. To have and to hold. - - To Have and to Hold, Village Green/Town², August, 2012

The arrival of a brand new book every month is an opportunity to explore new worlds. It’s not just about the kind of school readiness skills that many of us normally think about  - - learning the alphabet, beginning to recognize simple words, or linking illustrations to text. It’s also about the relationship which develops over time between the caregiver and the child as they bend their heads - - together - - over each new story.

One book is a gift. One book every month is an experience to look forward to. A shared ritual where the human interaction is every bit as important as the book.

My friend and former teaching colleague Bonnie Bricker created a local program called Talk With Me Howard County to help teach parents, caregivers, and providers the importance of those verbal interactions. 

Talk With Me • Howard County aims to help every parent recognize the importance of interactions with babies and toddlers from the earliest moments while demonstrating the simple ways these back and forth exchanges can occur through the routines of the day. By increasing this knowledge within our community we hope to advance the cause of talking with our babies and toddlers. Please help us SPREAD THE WORD to give every child a great start in life.

What we are talking about here is brain development and social emotional development. Participants in the Imagination Library spend their earliest years knowing that someone believes they are worth caring about and wants them to have the gift of reading and imagining and communicating and dreaming and…thriving. 

This absolutely changes lives for families who are working desperately hard to provide for their children in a place where everything is too expensive, wages are often inadequate and benefits low or nonexistent. And changing lives changes the present and the future. 

That is, if we find a way to persist in changing lives for the good. 

It looks like the Bright Minds Foundation has been looking for a long term funding source to support this program. That means Small Change* won’t do it. We need Major Funding.

Ideas? Let me know.

Village Green/Town² Comments

* It reminds me of a story told by the development director at a former school who was out walking in the city and was approached with this request:

Got any small change?

When she said no, and kept on walking, he called after her:

How about some major funding?