I recently met a professor at my school who is doing a research study on young Hispanic males  (for his PhD). Why “young Hispanic males” you ask? This is the group with the highest drop out rate. He has done a lot of research and conducted his own trials in trying to find a way to help this group literally beat the odds. He said he has tried to figure out what would work, crack the code of why less than half will graduate. After school programs, intervention programs, anything to help this group finish high school. He said the only thing that is proven over and over again, and the only thing he can find to help this group is so basic. Reading to your kids. Period. That’s it. That is the only magic he has found. It doesn’t matter what you read, just read. Part of it, he felt, that by reading to your kids, you teach them that you can learn new things from books. If you need to know more about something, you can read. If you want to read better, you can listen and follow along as someone else reads. If you want to get out of the place you are stuck in, then just read. That has the biggest impact on a child’s life (or so his findings tell him). He also said, even if there is only one parent around…READ to your kids!

Ah, now time for bed and for me to read a little.