April is the month to celebrate American libraries

Whether it's supporting patrons with digital literacy classes, becoming a new telehealth hotspot, or hosting literacy tutoring nights, American libraries are hubs for learning and civic life. Especially in rural communities where meeting places might be lacking, the local library can be a welcoming gathering place.

To celebrate all the strength, smarts and social connections libraries across the U.S. contribute to their local regions and patrons, April 19 to 25 is set aside as National Library Week, with the theme 'Find Your Joy.'

How do individuals 'find their joy' at the library? That depends. Some kids love story time and the weekly craft, while other youngsters do puzzles or drag out all the games. A teen might relish the time reading alone in a cozy corner. One adult patron might love their library's new 3-D printer, while another loves being able to check out the latest mystery book for free. 

For school librarians, the entire month of April is set aside to remind students, parents, teachers and education professionals of the role libraries play in school learning and educational spaces.

Ways to celebrate libraries of all sizes in April:

• Participate in National Library Week (April): Attend special events, such as author signings, workshops and book club meetings hosted by local branches.
• Support library staff: Celebrate National Library Workers Day (Tuesday of National Library Week) by thanking librarians and staff for their contributions.
• Get involved and advocate: Attend "Take Action for Libraries Day" (Thursday of National Library Week) to support funding and programs. Volunteer or join a "Friends of the Library" group.
• Use and promote services: Visit the library to check out items, attend digital literacy workshops, or explore online resources such as e-books and databases.
• Support intellectual freedom: Celebrate Right to Read Day (Monday of National Library Week) by checking out and reading books that have been challenged or banned.
• Read up on a Checkout Challenge: Some libraries run challenges during the week to encourage borrowing items (physically or digitally)

Rural Missouri classrooms were the first to use a promising new way to teach students how to read

Ashley Wood, a second-year kindergarten teacher in Phelps County, Missouri, is learning 
to teach her students reading with the new coaching model. (Photo via Missouri Independent)

Teachers in rural Missouri are helping students learn to read with a model that applies the science of reading to student learning, paired with teacher support and coaching. 

Through the Rural Schools Early Literacy Collaborative, literacy coaches from the national nonprofit TNTP "work directly with teachers in [select Missouri] schools, helping them implement structured reading instruction grounded in the science of reading," reports William Hehemann of the Missouri Independent.

Part of the effort includes coaches trained in reading sciences who regularly visit classrooms to observe teachers in action and model foundational lessons with students for practicing teachers. Hehemann explains, "Teachers receive feedback tied directly to classroom instruction. Coaching conversations are specific, practical and immediately applicable, accelerating growth in instructional practice."

The RSELC is working to improve reading proficiency across the state, where a majority of students are struggling. Hehemann reports, "According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 27% of Missouri fourth-grade students scored at or above the proficient reading level . . . . Improving early literacy is critical because reading proficiency by the end of third grade is closely linked to long-term academic success."

Early data show that students taught with the coaching model have made significant strides in reading skills. "In Rolla Public Schools, more than 94% of first-grade students demonstrated year-long growth in reading after coaching support began," Hehemann writes. "In Dent-Phelps R-III School District, the share of first graders reading at grade level increased from 25.5% in the fall to 89.4% by the spring."

What began as an experiment in one rural Missouri county is "expanding across the state," Hehemann reports. "The coaching model is being implemented in 60 schools statewide. . . . Education leaders say the expansion reflects growing recognition that improving reading outcomes requires not only a strong curriculum but also sustained coaching and support for teachers."

Quick hits: Appalachian brooms; soap science; school lunches on tour; summer train traveling; escaping the heat

Cynthia Main makes handmade brooms, Appalachian style.
(Sunhouse Craft photo via the Yonder)

When a talented crafter with an entrepreneurial bent got busy making handmade brooms, a new sustainable business in Appalachia was born. "Rural arts programs helped Eastern Kentucky maker Cynthia Main develop Sunhouse Craft, a sustainable business with an Appalachian sense of place," reports Kim Kobersmith of The Daily Yonder. "Main is driven by sustainability and community. With larger revenues, she can pay her small staff a living wage and offer her restored historic storefront as a community gathering space, while moving closer to her goal of developing a 100% local supply chain."

Pioneering women of the 1800s spent grueling hours over a fire making soap every spring. Sounds horrible, but soap itself is somewhat of a miracle. "The discovery of soap dates back approximately 5,000 years, to the ancient city of Babylon in what is today the country of Iraq," writes Paul E. Richardson for The Conversation. "Although billions of people use soap every day, most don’t know how it works. As a professor of chemistry, I can explain the science of soap. . . Soap molecules come together and surround the grime on your hands. The water-loving heads of the soap molecules are on the surface, with the water-fearing tails inside the micelle. This structure traps the dirt, and running water washes it all away."

 

Philadelphia children eating a 'three-cent dinner' at school.
(Science History Institute photo via Smithsonian)

Since the late 1800s, Americans have been arguing over kids' school lunches, but beyond the controversies, the topic offers an interesting look at the U.S. diet. "A new exhibition in Philadelphia spotlights the evolution of American nutritional health through a unique lens: the school cafeteria," reports Sonja Anderson for Smithsonian magazine. "Medical inspections revealed that schoolchildren were malnourished. Many had scurvy or rickets, diseases caused by vitamin deficiencies. . . . Philadelphia and Boston became two of the first cities to offer meals to public school students in 1894. According to a statement from the museum, the exhibition features a tiny aluminum token from 1909, which a Philadelphia child would have used to purchase a 'penny lunch' at school."

A California Zephyr trip is chockablock with scenic
views. (Amtrak photo)

Summer is a time for growing gardens, hiking, swimming, dodging mosquitoes, slathering on sunscreen, and, if you're lucky, taking a long vacation. "Here's how one writer used the $500 Amtrak rail pass to criss-cross the U.S. over the course of one month," writes McConnell Quinn for Condé Nast Traveler. "Unlike planes, where everyone stays in their bubble, trains are oddly social — a rotating cast of characters and glimpses into lives I’d never otherwise encounter. With the USA Rail Pass, I crossed the country three times in 30 days. . . I watched the Pacific creep into view on the Coast Starlight, rode the California Zephyr through the Rockies at sunset, and drifted to sleep somewhere in Texas on the Sunset Limited."

July's heat is surely coming, and for those of us with limited air conditioning options, planning where you will go to keep from baking -- beyond grocery store freezer aisles -- is a priority. One of the all-time favorite spots for escaping heat and humidity is movie theaters. AMC theaters must know they are part of some people's melting prevention plans because "beginning July 9, the movie theater chain will offer 50% off adult movie tickets on Wednesdays for those part of the AMC Stubs rewards program," reports Ramishah Maruf of CNN News. 

Summer is also a time for great reads. It could be on a beach, by the pool, in the grass with your horse or any number of amazing places to chill out and read. Not sure which book to kick off your summer escape? Try one from this list of books that will be made or have already been released as 2025 movies. Wilson Wong of The New York Times writes, "Here are some of the thrillers, romances, sci-fi page turners and detective novels coming soon to a screen near you. This is a running list. Check back for more updates as the year goes on."

"The first novella in the Murderbot Diaries series, 'All Systems Red,' follows a security android that secretly hacks its own operating system, allowing it to think and act independently," Wong writes. "But when an expedition goes strangely awry, resulting in several scientists’ deaths, the robot must help the humans in its own unit unravel the mystery before a similar tragedy befalls them." Murderbot premiered on Apple TV+ on May 16.

Early week quick hits: Addressing mental health issues; finding funny stories; using lasers to make birds leave

Colorado Department of Agriculture photo via Successful Farming

Farming and ranching are two livelihoods that are tough on the human body and mind. For men and women in either or both professions, seeking help for mental stress can mean overcoming social stigmas and a lack of access. A new film, Legacy, from the Colorado Department of Agriculture and Colorado Farm Bureau aims to break down social barriers for farmers and ranchers who experience isolation and mental health issues, reports Lisa Foust Prater of Successful Farming. The film takes viewers into the stories of "several farmers and ranchers who share glimpses into their lives, including losing a loved one to suicide or facing their own struggles with mental health. . . .They speak candidly about the struggles faced by those working in agriculture and the difficulties with finding help." Watch the film here.

Cancer used to be a disease people mostly over 50 had to worry about. Now, many younger people are turning up with aggressive cancers, and researchers can't yet explain what has changed. "Adults in the prime of their lives, often otherwise outwardly healthy, are dying of cancers that appear to develop more quickly and be more deadly than in the past, for reasons that scientists cannot adequately explain, reports Dylan Scott of Vox. "Scientific authorities around the world see this as one of the most pressing questions for modern medicine."

Reading a funny book can make life sweeter.
(Adobe Stock photo)

One of The Rural Blog writers insists that the world needs more laughter. With that idea in mind, here are 22 books that could help you giggle, guffaw, chortle and even snort out loud. "The humor these authors embrace traverses the gamut, from sardonic to screwball, mordant to madcap, droll to deranged," report Dwight Garner, Alexandra Jacobs and Jennifer Szalai of The New York Times. "The critic Albert Murray understood that wit is power, and that knowing where the funny is takes us closer to the nub of things. Best of all, it's available to anyone. As Murray wrote, 'It is always open season on the truth.'"

As many rural hospitals and clinics have closed or limited services, getting medical care or chronic health treatment services has become an uphill battle for residents. The American Heart Association visited Alaska, Kansas, Kentucky, the Dakotas and West Virginia to shed light on rural health challenges and how residents and communities are working to overcome obstacles. Their exploration and discussions are presented in the docuseries, "Health Wanted: Find Care in Rural America." Click here for each state's episode.

Lasers can deter birds.
(Bird Control Group photo via SF)

Some Wisconsin farmers use lasers to keep wild birds away from their animals, reducing their chance of avian flu exposure. "When the human eye examines one of Craig Duhr's lasers at a Wisconsin farm, only a green dot is visible. But to birds, a variety of green beams and shifting patterns appear," reports Jonah Beleckis of Wisconsin Public Radio. Laser beams do not harm birds, but the birds "simply see the lasers as a threat and leave the area. . . . Wisconsin's agriculture department recommends farmers use biosecurity measures, such as lasers, to protect poultry flocks."

Maine Monitor analysis,
from State Fire Marshal data

Maine firefighters have the cool trucks and trademark hats, and some even have a station dog. But fighting fires is not what they spend most of their time doing. Amber Stone of The Maine Monitor reports, "A mere 4.5 percent of the 160,435 calls for service in 2022 were for fires, according to a Monitor analysis of State Fire Marshal data. Seventy percent of those calls were for emergency medical response. More than half of Maine's 338 registered fire departments are also licensed at some level to provide emergency medical services, according to Maine EMS, and more are considering doing so."

Saturday is "Let Freedom Read Day," and organizers are promoting efforts to defend library books from censorship

Public libraries should have materials for everyone in the community, but with the increase in book bans, it can feel like the freedom to find "your thing" to read could be pulled from the shelf.

Tomorrow, Oct. 7, is Let Freedom Read Day. In the spirit of civic engagement, advocacy groups are asking Americans to stand up for library staff, educators, writers, publishers and booksellers who make the wide variety of books available to readers.

The organizers of Banned Books Week promote several ways for people to support the efforts:

Call a decision maker: Call school and library administrators, school board and library board members, city councilpersons, and elected representatives to ask them to support the right to read a variety of books. Find and Contact Elected Officials (usa.gov)

Support an advocacy organization: The Banned Books Week Coalition includes organizations that fight against efforts to ban books. Learn more about the members of the Coalition here.

Buy a "banned" book: Censorship doesn’t just harm libraries and schools; it also impacts writers, publishers and booksellers. Writers have had school visits canceled. Publishers and booksellers are encountering more obstacles to working with schools and libraries. One way to support the people who make and sell books is to buy them.

Do you want to help others access banned books? You can donate the books you purchase to:

• Public and school libraries: Contact your local library or school to find out what they need and how to donate.
• Little Free Library: Use the free LFL mobile app to find a Little Free Library book-sharing box in your area.
• Fundraisers: Many public libraries have friends of the library groups that use donated books to raise money for the library.
• A banned book giveaway or bookmobile: Call your local bookstore to see if they may be hosting a giveaway or supporting a bookmobile. 

More ideas are here.

The Color Purple book remains one of the most frequently challenged books more than 40 years after its release

In 2022, the ALA  documented over 1,200 attempts to ban or
restrict library materials. (Thought Catalog photo, Unsplash)

In 1982, Alice Walker's The Color Purple became a critically acclaimed bestseller. But alongside the accolades, the story stirred up enough controversy to became "one of the most challenged books in the nation, withstanding criticisms aimed at its depictions of race and sex, its portrayal of abuse and agony, and even its spelling and style," reports Erin Blakemore of National Geographic. The novel was praised for "its portrayals of both the brutality and sorrow of racism and sexual violence and its celebration of Black women. . . . Though educators recognized the book's potential as a teaching tool, some parents and community members objected to its presence in school curriculums and libraries.

"The first major attempt to ban the book occurred in 1984, when a parent petitioned against its use in an Oakland, California classroom," Blakemore writes. "In a 1985 essay, Walker recalled reading frequent updates on 'how the banning was coming along' and watching the book's sales skyrocket. . . Though the Oakland schools ultimately decided not to remove the book from classrooms, the book has consistently been challenged nationwide since its publication, repeatedly making it on the American Library Association's list of most frequently challenged books."

Why? "Walker's use of slang and profanity, the book's portrayal of brutal Black men, a same-sex encounter between the two main characters, and its depiction of sexual violence in its first pages," Blakemore explains. "'One can eat from a cafeteria or a dumpster…but one would hope those placed in charge of our children would have exercised better oversight,' wrote one parent in a characteristic 2013 challenge in Brunswick County, N.C. (The book has survived multiple attempted bans in the Brunswick County school district.)"

A decade later, the book still faces challenges, but it is not alone. "In 2022, the American Library Association documented over 1,200 attempts to ban or restrict library materials—double the number of challenges from the previous year—and most of which attempted to remove multiple titles from shelves," Blakemore adds. "The Color Purple . . . was removed from library shelves in Florida's Indian County School District at the request of a parent group that objected to 156 of the books on school shelves, claiming the books contain everything from pornography to critical race theory."

The movie adaptation of The Color Purple musical is set for release in December, and once again, the book will be in the public spotlight. "Only time will tell if the movie will spark more challenges—but for now, the legacy of a book one 1982 reviewer called 'indelibly affecting' is secure," Blakemore writes. "To date, the book has sold over 5 million copies."

Organized and influential, promoters and organizers of recent book bans seek influence over a lot more than books

Florida Freedom to Read Project members. The project opposes
restrictions on reading. (Photo by Todd Anderson, New York Times)

Rancorous conflicts over attempts to ban books in libraries are about a lot more than books, report Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter of The New York Times. 

"Traditionally, debates over what books are appropriate for school libraries have taken place between a concerned parent and a librarian or administrator," they write. "But recently, the issue has been supercharged by a rapidly growing and increasingly influential constellation of conservative groups" that have "pursued their goals by becoming heavily involved in local and state politics. . . . They have created political action committees, funded campaigns, endorsed candidates and packed school boards, helping to fuel a surge in challenges to individual books and to drive changes in the rules governing what books are available to children."

The efforts seem to have have a social agenda. "The materials the groups object to are often described in policies and legislation as sensitive, inappropriate or pornographic," the Times reports. "In practice, the books most frequently targeted for removal have been by or about Black or LGBTQ people, according to the American Library Association."

The battle is limiting how librarians do their jobs. Florida has a list of "challenged books," which it distributes to school districts. Michelle Jarrett, the library media supervisor for the School District of Osceola County, told The Times, “This list could be seen as a warning, like ‘Don’t even bother with these books.' Librarians across the state are already self-censoring for fear of retribution, and asking themselves, ‘Am I ready to defend this book, is this worth the fight?’”

The Keller Independent School District in Dallas "banned books from its libraries that include the concept of gender fluidity. The change was pushed by three new school board members, elected in May with support from Patriot Mobile, a self-described Christian cellphone carrier. Through its political action committee, Patriot Mobile poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into Texas school board races to promote candidates with conservative views on race, gender and sexuality — including on which books children can access at school," the Times reports.

Keller parents who did not support the bans found themselves "outflanked by deep-pocketed organizations whose actions can change longstanding policies in a matter of months." Laney Hawes, who has four children in Keller schools, told the Times, “They ran on the campaign of, ‘We’re going to get pornography and sexually explicit books out of our school libraries.' The parents didn’t have a PAC. We couldn’t compete with these people.”

Organizing a national resistance to book bans is challenging, but pushback is happening. Emerson Sykes, a First Amendment litigator for the American Civil Liberties Union, told The Times, "The restrictions infringe on students’ right to access a broad range of material without political censorship.” Librarian groups have also been organizing resistance. The Times reports: "Librarians in Texas formed FReadom Fighters, an organization that offers guidance to librarians on handling book challenges. In Florida, parents who oppose book banning formed the Freedom to Read Project, which urges its members to attend board meetings and tracks the work of groups like Florida Citizens Alliance."

Shenandoah Valley bookstore that opens six times a year draws customers from around the world

Six times a year people from around the country, and some from around the world, flock to a rural town in the Shenandoah Valley to buy books. The Green Valley Book Fair in Mount Crawford, Va., opens its doors for three weeks at a time to sell "a half million recent books at rock-bottom prices," James F. Lee reports for The Washington Post. The store opens again from Oct. 1-23. (Post map)

"Green Valley Book Fair opened in 1971 in an old barn that still stands on the property. Owners Leighton and Kathryn Evans initially sold used books, part of Leighton’s huge collection," Lee writes. "Today, the old barn has given way to an air-conditioned, 25,000-square-foot, two-building facility that opens six times a year, offering book lovers, teachers and bargain hunters thousands of titles, including cookbooks, literature, gardening, general fiction, history, nonfiction, mystery, science fiction and children’s lit. All the sections are well marked, and there are lots of clerks on hand to offer help."

Green Valley Book Fair (Post photo by James F Lee)

Reagan Neese, the fair's operations supervisor, told Lee, "There’s always a sense of anticipation of what you’ll find here."

The store's strategy of six fairs a year has been a great success, Lee writes. "Pins on a wall map of the U.S. show where visitors have come from. All 50 states are represented. Pieces of paper stuck to the side of the map indicate faraway places such as Brazil, Germany, the Marshall Islands and Nigeria."

NEA survey has state-level data of creativity; North more likely than South to create or perform art

How creative are people in your state? The National Endowment for the Arts conducted a pair of surveys, in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau, asking adults if they attended events, read literature, personally performed or created art, or consumed art via electronic media at least once during a 12-month period. Overall, 66 percent of respondents said they attended visual or performing arts events or went to the movies in 2015, 43 percent read literature in 2015, 45 percent performed or created art in 2014 and 61 percent said they consumed art via electronic media in 2012.

Numbers were much higher in the northern half of the U.S. when it came to creating or performing art, Christopher Ingraham reports for The Washington Post. In no state to the south of the dividing line at parallel 36°30' (by chance, the line that delineated the boundary between new slave and free states in the Missouri Compromise) "do a majority of people say they personally create or perform art. Conversely, in only three states above that line—Kentucky, Delaware and West Virginia—do fewer than 40 percent of residents create or perform art." All those were slave territory before the Civil War. (Post map: Percent of adults who personally performed or created art in 2014)

NEA analysis credits this to attained levels of higher education, Ingraham writes. "The percent of state residents with a bachelor's degree or higher is positively correlated with creating artwork: in other words, more education, more art. Conversely, poverty rates are a strong negative driver of arts participation. If you're working three minimum wage jobs, you're probably not going to have a lot of time to indulge in crochet or creative writing."

"Of course, education and poverty are big drivers of each other, too," Ingraham writes. "States with more money can spend more on better education, which leads to higher wages, which leads to more education, in an ongoing virtuous cycle. Unfortunately, the reverse holds true as well."

Joyce Carol Thomas dies; told prizewinning stories of rural African Americans in Oklahoma

Joyce Carol Thomas in 2004
(San Francisco Chronicle photo) 

"Joyce Carol Thomas, a National Book Award-winning author who drew on her own experiences in writing books for children and young adults that accented her rural African American heritage, died Aug. 13 at a hospital in Palo Alto, Calif.," Matt Schudel reports for The Washington Post. "She was 78."

Thomas, who grew up working cotton fields in Oklahoma, published her first novel for young readers, Marked by Fire, in 1982. "Set in her home town of Ponca City, Okla., the book introduces a memorable and resilient character, Abyssinia Jackson, who appears in several subsequent books and becomes something of a mythic figure," Schudel writes. "Marked by Fire was quickly recognized as a modern classic of young people’s literature. It won both the National Book Award and the American Book Award and became a part of classroom studies throughout the country. It was later made into a musical play."

"Although she had lived in California since she was 10, Thomas found a never-ending source of literary inspiration in the rural fields and small towns of her native Oklahoma," Schudel writes. "She sought to draw portraits of black life different from stories in modern urban settings or in the time of slavery." Thomas told the African American Review in 1998, “I know of black boys and girls who squirm uncomfortably in their desks at the two-dimensional, unrelenting portrayal of young people as either victims of slavery or perennial do-ragwearers hanging out on a stoop next to a garbage can. There are black American stories somewhere between slavery and ghetto that also deserve telling.”

Politico ranks New Hampshire nation's strongest state, Louisiana weakest; 8 of 10 weakest in South

New Hampshire is the strongest state, and 8 of the 10 weakest states are in the South, led by Louisiana as the nation's weakest state, according to Politico Magazine's rankings of states, Manuela Tobias reports for Politico. States were ranked based on: annual per capital income; unemployment; percent below poverty level; home ownership rate; high school graduation; life expectancy at birth; infant deaths per 1,000 births; obesity; violent crime rate; employment in computer, science and engineering; math and reading scores; Well-Being score; GINI index; and H.L. Mencken's 1931 rankings.

"To pull the list together, we consulted 14 existing rankings from sources like the U.S. Census Bureau, the Centers for Disease Control and the FBI and then averaged each state’s different rankings," Tobias writes. "The resulting list, inspired by American Mercury editors H.L. Mencken and Charles Angoff’s 1931 series 'The Worst American State,' doesn’t promise scientific infallibility. But it’s based on the simple idea that education, health and wealth generally make us better off, while crime, unemployment and death do not."

Following New Hampshire at the top of the list was Minnesota, Vermont, Utah, Colorado, Massachusetts, Wyoming, Iowa, Connecticut and Hawaii. Louisiana was ranked 51st. Also at the bottom was Mississippi (50th), Alabama (49), Arkansas (48), West Virginia (47), Tennessee (46), Oklahoma (45), Kentucky (44), Nevada (43), Georgia (42), New Mexico (41) and South Carolina (40).

Minnesota and New Hampshire tied for the top spot last year, while Mississippi was ranked last. In 2014, New Hampshire was the strongest and Mississippi the weakest.

Rural Alabama county cuts library budget, so library eliminates rural bookmobile stops

Some residents in one rural Alabama county are losing their bookmobile. The Calhoun County Commission approved a 5 percent budget cut to the Anniston library, leading library officials to eliminate 11 stops that a re-purposed, bookshelf-lined van makes to visit mostly senior citizens and children who are unable to get to the library, Zach Tyler reports for The Anniston Star. (Star photo by Bill Wilson: The bookmobile)

The van, which only runs three days per week, had 151 books checked out in October, Tyler writes. According to part-time librarian Linda Levens, the bookmobile burns half a gallon of diesel per hour idling and gets 7 miles to the gallon driving.

"Over the next year, the library will receive $107,065 in monthly payments from the Calhoun County Commission, according to assistant county administrator Melissia Wood," Tyler writes. "The library received $112,700 in fiscal 2015, Wood said, equating to a decrease of $5,635 in funding this year—about $469 less each month." Library, director Teresa Kiser told Tyler, “When the county cuts us, it only seems appropriate that we cut county individuals." (Read more)

Study: Using encouraging language, conversing with children impacts their IQ, educational outcomes

Before children even attend school, their interactions with parents at home play a huge role in determining their grasp on vocabulary and conversation. University of Kansas psychologists Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley found that "on average, children from professional families heard more than 2,150 words an hour," Sarah Sparks writes for Education Week. "Those in working-class families heard about 1,250 words. Children in families on welfare heard little more than 600 words an hour."

While the number of words is important, how words are used also matters, said Barbara T. Bowman, a child-development professor and co-founder of the Chicago-based Erikson Institute. Children of professionals heard twice as many unique words and twice as many encouraging words than children in other family situations. According to the research, more than 85 percent of the "vocabulary, conversational patterns and language complexity of the 3-year-olds had come from their families," Sparks writes. The vocabularies of children of professionals were nearly twice the size of the vocabularies of children from families receiving welfare.

Dale Walker, an associate research professor at the Juniper Gardens Children's Project in Kansas City, Kan., did a followup study and found that children from kindergarten to 3rd grade who had heard the least words at home "were still at a disadvantage years later. I always knew where to find them; frequently, they were in the hallways for behavior problems."

An important implication of the study is the lack of exposure to encouraging language, said W. Steve Barnett, the director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. One problem is that "we segregate low-income children in preschool programs just for them. Children were already replicating these [family] patterns in their own interactions. What did we think the consequences would be of kids who get together and interact with each other largely negatively?"

According to the study, by age 3, children of professionals would hear approximately 45 million words, while children in poverty would only hear 13 million. "By age 3, a child's IQ was more closely related to the number of words he had heard than to any other factor, including parents' overall education or income level," Sparks reports.

Just because a family has a low socioeconomic status or the parents did not attend college doesn't mean they can't engage in positive conversations with their children. "Conversational turns are vastly more important than the number of words a child is exposed to," Jill Gilkerson, LENA Research Foundation's director of child-language research, said. One study found that students who scored in the top 10 percent on preschool language tests engaged in conversations with their parents involving 18 more turns per hour than children who scored in the other 80 percent. (Read more)

South Carolina promoting Little Free Libraries in rural areas that lack a public library

Officials in South Carolina are trying to promote reading in rural areas that lack a public library by holding a contest to encourage communities to open a Little Free Library, Savannah Lewis reports for WLTX 19 in Columbia. Donny Supplee, who has applied to build a little library, told Lewis, "With all the technology that's going out there I think books still have a place in our lives. I think getting kids involved in an early age—I think this will be a good way for them to go to a little mailbox, see a book that they can get, and I think it just involves a new way of getting out there." (The first Little Free Library built in 2009)

Little Free Library was started in 2009 by Wisconsin's Todd Bol, who built a one-room schoolhouse as a tribute to his mother, a former teacher. Bol filled the schoolhouse with books and encouraged his friends and neighbors to take the books for free. The first schoolhouse was so successful he built more. The organization now has a goal of building 2,510 libraries, the same number of free libraries Andrew Carnegie built around the turn of the 20th century.

One of the nation's poorest school districts leads a discussion about innovation in education

By Melissa Landon
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

BOONEVILLE, Ky. — School administrators and teachers from several Kentucky counties gathered in Owsley County (Wikipedia map), perhaps the nation's poorest, on Monday, Dec. 15, to discuss innovation in education. The school district was recently inducted into the Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools. "Poverty means every child in this district has a reason to fail, but that is just not going to happen," said County School Supt. Tim Bobrowski.

Attendees discussed topics such as use of snow days, technology in the classroom, farm-to-table programs and college readiness. The two most important discussions were on efforts to close the achievement gap, and the Snowbound Project — an effort to make up for snow days through online learning instead of through extra school days at the end of the year.

Students have from Dec. 1 to March 1 to complete online work that replaces up to 10 snow days. They earn 0.25 credits for the work. Jennifer Hall, an Owsley County High School science teacher, said students need to be taught how to use the Blackboard program used for the courses, and teachers need to provide free PowerPoint downloads and post PDFs rather than Word documents because some students may not have access to those computer programs.

Adam Holmes, an Owsley High graduate now in college, said the Snowbound Project helped him because he uses Blackboard in college to check grades, keep up with assignments and communicate with professors. Supt. Bobrowski said school officials want students to be innovative and creative, so they must have good Internet access.

Teachers don't just use the online resources for snow-day assignments. Hall said she puts extra assignments and explanations on Blackboard to help students who are having trouble with lessons in the classroom. Jason Hall, a sixth-grade teacher, creates educational videos to help his students learn math concepts. He is also learning how to use Google Docs for his lessons.

Judy Cheatham, vice president of literacy services for Reading is Fundamental, said the key to closing the achievement gap isn't technology, but books. She emphasized the importance of teaching children to love reading while they are still young so that it will become a habit. Also important to remember, she said, is that children of poor and middle-class parents do not hear as many high-level vocabulary words as children of upper-class people hear.

Stacey Davidson, instructional supervisor at the school, talked about the Owsley Summer Reading Project, an initiative designed to prevent students from losing knowledge over the summer and learn to love reading. The program provided 109 middle-school students with eight books each over the summer. Students received books in the mail, with letters for the parents providing discussion questions. A before-and-after test showed that the reading scores of the students who participated in the program declined less than the scores of those who did not.

Public libraries are 'lifelines for rural communities'

Whatever the changes in rural American communities, the public library remains one constant that has something for everybody. There are 8,956 public libraries in the U.S., with 77.1 percent considered small (populations less than 25,000) and 46.8 percent in areas categorized as rural, according a report by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Only 16 percent of the U.S. population is rural. In fiscal year 2011, there were 167.6 million recorded visits to rural public libraries, a 4.2 percent increase since 2008, and 301.2 million visits to small libraries, a 4.6 percent increase since 2008.

One reason for the success of rural libraries, which we have noted before, is access to the Internet. Perhaps the bigger reason for the success of rural libraries is something that is rarely offered by anyone else in our consumer-drive society, a public meeting place with free access to a multitude of items, with no demand to purchase something and move along. In fact, most libraries encourage people to spend as much time as needed enjoying the services.

For places such as Myrtle, Mo., a town of 300 in the Ozarks that doesn't even have a bank or a restaurant, the one-room public library is a perfect place for residents to congregate. And new librarian Rachel Reynolds has taken to social media to get the library filled with goodies. With the library only getting $200 a month for books and supplies, Reynolds has used the Internet to seek donations, already garnering 1,000 books since taking over four months ago, Jennifer Davidson reports for NPR. (Davidson photo: Librarian Rachel Reynolds checks out a book to visitor Phyllis Smith)

Tena Hanson of the Association for Rural and Small Libraries told Davidson, "Often, the library is the only place in a small community that people can go to access technology, to fill out job applications, to continue their learning." Hanson said "libraries in remote places are lifelines for rural communities, because the Internet doesn't always reach towns with rugged terrain," Davidson reports.

Too many snow days leave rural Minn. schools struggling to prepare for assessment tests

Rural Minnesota schools have had so many snow days, and late starts due to snow, that some officials said they are worried students won't be prepared to take required assessment tests that judge schools on how well they perform, and require older students to pass the reading, writing and math portions to graduate, Tim Post reports for Minnesota Public Radio. Western Minnesota, where districts can cover hundreds of square miles, has been particularly hit hard by snow, which remains in the forecast in the state through the rest of the week.

Rural district superintendents said starting school before Labor Day would help give them an extra week or two to prepare for tests, Post reports. Minnesota law requires school to begin after Labor Day, although 30 districts have special waivers to begin early. "A bill in the K-12 education omnibus bill at the Capitol this session would allow schools to start before the end of the summer holiday. The issue has come up many times before but failed after opposition from the state's tourism industry." (Read more)

Rural Americans are a bit less likely to read books, even more so when they involve work or school

About 80 percent of people living in urban and suburban areas say they have read a book within the past year, while 71 percent of rural residents say they have read a book within the last year, according to a Pew Research Center study. Rural residents who read books read as much as their urban and suburban counterparts. More than three-fourths of all groups say they read for pleasure. The poll was part of the center's Internet and American Life project.

Nearly 60 percent of urban and suburban residents read for work or school, compared to just 47 percent of rural residents, notes Henry Grabar of The Atlantic. Urban and suburban also have higher percentages of people with library cards. The biggest factors at play in terms of different reading habits remain age, education level and household income, the study's authors conclude: "The type of community in which people live is not an independent predictor of their reading behavior or their activities at libraries." (Read more)

Rural students' reading levels below suburban counterparts, slightly below urban score

A comparison of reading scores of third graders in rural, suburban and urban areas show rural students are behind. The Carsey Insitute, an applied and policy research organization at the University of New Hampshire, found the average reading score of third-grade rural students on a 212-point scale was 122, almost 8 points lower than the suburban average, Diette Courrege of Education Week reports on the Rural Education blog. "Urban students' scores were an average of six points lower than the suburban average."

Carsey said in its brief, "Although these differences are not large, even small differences in third grade reading achievement can have important effects on later education outcomes." Researchers identified poverty and location as two major factors in the achievement gaps, Courrege reports. They believe availability of preschool, parental education levels, and student and teacher educational opportunities are all influenced by location and affect achievement scores of rural children designated as struggling readers at the beginning of kindergarten. (Read more)

Public libraries should be necessities in rural and urban communities

Funding of U.S. libraries, including those in rural areas, should be considered a matter of national security, writes an Atlanta novelist. "Keeping libraries open, giving access to all children to all books is vital to our nation’s sovereignty," Karin Slaughter, author of 10 crime novels and native of Jonesboro, Ga., writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Librarians are soldiers in the battle for our place in the world, and in many cases they are getting the least amount of support our communities can offer."

Slaughter notes that 85 percent of children in rural areas only have access to technology and books outside of the classroom in public libraries, and "for many urban kids, the only safe haven they have to study or do homework is the public library." Reading is an essential element of child development because fundamentally children are selfish and "reading about other people creates a sense of balance in a child’s life," Slaughter writes. She notes children who read well do better in school, and those who do better in school are more likely to go to college, get better jobs and in turn, pay more taxes.

"We need to shift our national view of libraries not as luxuries, but as necessities," Slaughter writes. "When tragedy strikes in other nations, Americans are generous, but our libraries are being hit with a tsunami and there has been no call to action. Staffs are being fired. Hours are being cut. Doors are being closed. Buildings are being razed. Kids are being left behind. Futures are being destroyed." She concludes, "Libraries are not simply part of our guarantee to the pursuit of happiness. They are a civil right, the foundation upon which time and time again the American dream has been built. If we lose our libraries, we risk losing our communities, our families and ourselves." (Read more)