Rotarians help bring bicentennial education to middle schoolers
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
By Teresa Heidenreich
Thanks to a District Grant, the Rotary club is providing every middle school student (500) in Washington with a copy of “Hoosiers and the American Story” by Dr. James Madison, Professor Emeritus (Indiana University) and distinguished history scholar. The book distribution is part of a partnership with the Washington Carnegie Public Libary’s One Book One Community.
The main objective of the program is to encourage middle school aged children to read and enhance literacy all while celebrating the importance of our state’s history, literature and culture.
Statistically, the library district is located in an oppressed area with little industry or job opportunity. The 2010 U.S. Census Data shows that of 92 counties, Daviess County is 24th in poverty rate and 90th in those people over age 25 having at least high school diploma (74%). Only 12.2% of those ages 25+ have a Bachelor’s degree or higher which ranks Daviess County 71st of the 92 counties.
Putting an Indiana History book in the hands of middle school students is important to the library and to local Rotarians. One of the Rotary Foundation “areas of focus” is supporting education. The foundation site explains that “sixty-seven million children worldwide have no access to education and more than 775 million people over the age of 15 are illiterate. Our goal is to strengthen the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy, reduce gender disparity in education and increase adult literacy.” In speaking with the author Dr. Madison, he commented that the book was written for the middle school audience to spark interest and align with the Indiana Academic Standards for both 8th grade and high school. The book is published by the Indiana Historical Society Press and retails at $19.95.
This project will strengthen education and literacy among our middle school citizens, which in return, will help our community thrive. It has the potential to improve the lives of the less fortunate.
By including middle school students in the community wide read, it will encourage people representing all demographics to enter into face-to-face discussions amongst their peers about the book and challenge their reading comprehension by contemplating the discussion questions. During the year long event, students will engage in book discussions offered at the library and various venues in the community. Students are encouraged to attend the discussions with their peers but also at other venues so that they have the potential to meet and build relationships with leaders in the community. The author of the book will visit the middle school, discuss Indiana history, be available for question and answer opportunities with students and offer a book signing.
It is our hope that through reading this book, each individual student would become inspired to learn about the local community, Indiana’s history and his/her family heritage. We also trust that this project will enhance a student’s ability to read, write, compute, and communicate
