This was published in the Times-Argus on February 8, 2021, with some good information about the program and our plans for the fall.
FROM THE TIMES-ARGUS
Reading group hoping to get back
into schools in the fall
By Eric Blaisdell, February 8, 202l
MONTPELIER – A group of volunteers
is hoping to return to classrooms this fall to continue reading to students
about inclusion and diversity.
In response to the novel coronavirus
pandemic, the group called Central Vermont Reading to End Racism has made
videos available where children can have books read to them.
The group has been working in the
area for more than 20 years. It was founded by Vermont educator and activist
Paij Wadley-Bailey, who died in 2016.
The volunteers go into elementary
school classrooms in Central Vermont on the same day once a year and read
children’s literature that relates to racism and bullying. They also engage
students in activities and discussion of the issues and thoughts the books
raise.
Janet Van Fleet is one of the
members of the group’s steering committee. Van Fleet, who taught elementary
school students for about 10 years in Montpelier, said years ago she was
looking for something to do in relation to racial justice.
She said racism is something this
country has struggled with since its founding. “Until we deal with that, things
aren’t going to be right,” she said.
Then she heard about this reading
group. Van Fleet said the group’s work sounded like what she was looking for.
“Children are our most important
resource,” she said.
Van Fleet said this group helps
children with questions about fairness and justice at an early age, and helps
them feel comfortable asking those questions.
Rachel Cogbill is another member of
the group’s steering committee. Cogbill worked as a teacher for 39 years and
joined the group after she retired about five years ago.
“I have been a teacher all of my
life,” she said. “And I believe that children are the most important key to our
future, and working with them is key in helping our society become a better and
better place.”
She said the volunteers work
alongside the teachers to find the right books for their students. She said if
a book is addressing someone in the class in particular, like a student of
color, the teacher will reach out to that student’s parents and get their
thoughts on whether the book is appropriate.
“So we’re trying to be sensitive to
the different backgrounds of the children in the class through collaboration
with the teacher because the teacher is the one who really knows the students,”
she said.
But those in-person reading sessions
couldn’t happen this year because of the pandemic. Instead, the group has
collected some publicly available videos of people reading certain children’s
books and made them available at the group’s website: cvreadingtoendracism.blogspot.com
The videos are broken up into two
categories, one for kindergartners through third-graders; and the other for
third- through fifth-graders.
The videos for the younger students
are broken up into topics which include what race is, multiculturalism and
taking action. Videos for the older students focus on biographies, civil rights
and racism and taking action.
The website gets about 100 hits a
month, and Cogbill said people from outside Vermont have discovered the videos
and are using them.
While the videos can help for now,
Van Fleet said the volunteers want to get back into classrooms to have
in-person interactions with students.
“The reason we do it the way we do
it, where all the classrooms in the schools are having it at the same time, is
that the children are then having a collective experience and we’re all
learning about this.”
She said the pandemic has shown
remote learning can be more difficult than in-person learning and the idea of
the group is to have face-to-face discussions about these issues in the
community.
She said the group is trying to help
the students become good people. “I hope that when children are coming up in an
environment of trust and kindness and justice and equal opportunity then maybe
we can put this stuff to bed a little bit,” she said.
