When Reading is an Act of Love

When Carla Pacis invited me to do a workshop on literacy development, the importance of reading and storytelling to parents of St. John La Salle Preschool, I immediately said yes -- without second thoughts. The home is a child's first school and the parents are his/her first teachers. And boy, every school MUST collaborate with parents and every parent NEED allies to raise a child. As the old saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child.

So Carla and I met with Chichi Ferrer, cooridinator of the De La Salle Univeristy-Taft run St. John La Salle Preschool. If you put three women whose common advocacy is literacy development, there must be good coffee. Plans were laid out and it wheeled along smoothly on the day of the workshop. There were, more or less, thirty parents (five daddies were present) who attended. They were ready and eager to participate.

I brought my storytelling stuff, of course, and donated story books to the school so Chichi and her teachers can start a lending library.

At the workshop, parents read stories, told stories and WROTE some too!

They also discussed their views on reading, books and learning in general. I had to emphasize how reading and literacy is a RIGHT that must be claimed and that no child should be deprived of this.

It is always a joy to see grown-ups engrossed in books! I used mostly local books published by Adarna House, Lampara, LG & M and Hiyas. The parents were very attentive and analytical. Some gave comments, good and otherwise on the books they read. We closed the workshop with group presentations on their selected books for read aloud and storytelling.