I recently had the opportunity to attend a small conference that was centered around my faith of Islam, and while a lot of the material discussed was extremely valuable, one of the ideas the speaker mentioned really sparked interest in me.

She brought up the salaries of famous sports stars today in comparison with the salaries of teachers.

The message was that while there is nothing wrong with aspiring to play in the Leagues one day, the salary of a pro baseball player is often in the six figures, while the salary of an elementary school teacher varies anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000, depending on the years of experience they have.

It’s extremely saddening that those who are bestowed with the responsibility of educating the next generation are paid so little and their role in society is so devalued in comparison with one who is 6 foot 4 and can dunk a basketball or hit a home run.

Like afore mentioned, there isn’t anything wrong with being a sports star; the objective is to use that occupation as a comparison with the one at hand. Given the value of teachers today, it’s not very surprising that our literacy rates are so low and we are falling behind.

Countries such as Japan and India are eons ahead of the US in education, and this really needs to be an issue we need to concentrate on improving. Those involved in the educational field, especially elementary school teachers, are responsible for spreading literacy in the area. In times such as these, we must remember those who are indirectly carrying our cirty forward. If the issue of literacy isn’t solved right now, we could be looking at a future that is extremely bleak.

On November 13th at 6pm in the Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship located in Callison Hall on University of the Pacific’s campus, Stockton2020 received its first community support grant from Asera Care Hospice. The grant was for $1,000 and will be used to fund 2020’s campaign projects for the upcoming year.

This was local history in the making. Asera Care Hospice has been establishing themselves in this community providing their services to our community’s elders and disabled. Stockton2020 is one of the first organizations to receive a community support grant from them.

Members of Stockton2020 and its advisory board got together with supporters of 2020 to celebrate this occasion on the University’s campus. The event was also reported in the Youthink Section of the Stockton Record by Lincoln High School reporter Emily Parker.

The Chicago Public Library system wants to smash the stereotypical image that it is nothing more than a place where old fogies congregate and read. So the Chicago Public Library is launching a new ad campaign Nov. 17 from All Terrain/Chicago that attempts to impress upon young adults of a post-college, pre-children age that their neighborhood library isn’t only a repository for books and prim librarians. Indeed, the range of offerings now extends to DVDs, CDs, live performances, free Wi-Fi and more.

The latest statistics show book circulation in Chicago’s public libraries is up 28 percent so far in 2008 vs. 2007, and more than 1.1 million people now visit the city’s libraries each month.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Simon Romero, New York Times

A whimsical riff on the bookmobile, Mr. Soriano’s Biblioburro is a small institution: one man and two donkeys. He created it out of the simple belief that the act of taking books to people who do not have them can somehow improve this impoverished region, and perhaps Colombia.

In doing so, Mr. Soriano has emerged as the best-known resident of La Gloria, a town that feels even farther removed from the rhythms of the wider world than is Aracataca, the inspiration for the setting of the epic “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez, another of the region’s native sons.

Unlike Mr. García Márquez, who lives in Mexico City, Mr. Soriano has never traveled outside Colombia — but he remains dedicated to bringing its people a touch of the outside world. His project has won acclaim from the nation’s literacy specialists and is the subject of a new documentary by a Colombian filmmaker, Carlos Rendón Zipaguata.

The idea came to him, he said, after he witnessed as a young teacher the transformative power of reading among his pupils, who were born into conflict even more intense than when he was a child.

Read the whole article, click here!

Stockton2020 is honored to have been awarded San Joaquin A+’s “Spirit of Literacy Award.” We received the award along with other outstanding organizations and individuals during San Joaquin A+’s Spirit of Literacy Gala on September 18th. Along with the award came letters of recognition from the offices of Congressmen McNerney and Cardoza, Assembly members Agazarian, Nakanishi, Galgiani, and State Senators Cogdill and Machado.

Thank you for believing in us!

By TODD MCHALE
Burlington County Times

If you have to wait to check out a book or use the computer at the local library, blame it on the economy.

The demand for libraries has been huge over the last several months.

“There’s an old saying “when business is bad libraries do well,’ ” said Gail Sweet, director of the Burlington County Library system.

That old saying appears to be playing out here and throughout the country.

“We’re seeing a substantial uptick in use of the library,” said Joe Galbraith, director of the Moorestown Library.

He said the library recently began offering Sunday hours to satisfy some of the demand.

Willingboro Public Library assistant director Christine Hill said she couldn’t agree more with Galbraith’s and Sweet’s assessment.

“In 2007, we had the most use in our 47-year history, and we had record-setting numbers for June and July this year,” Hill said.

To read more, click here

The Associated Press
Article Launched: 09/07/2008 03:28:17 PM PDT

LONG BEACH—The City Council’s budget oversight committee dropped its proposal this week to close Long Beach’s 84-year-old main library. Could its members have heard that the 88-year-old author of “Fahrenheit 451″ was on his way to town to make things warm for them if they didn’t?

“Without libraries, we have no true education,” Ray Bradbury told some 300 people at Long Beach’s main library on Saturday, a day after the budget oversight committee recommended instead that the library be closed only on Sundays and Mondays. The full City Council must still take up the measure.

On Saturday Bradbury reminded his listeners of how he wrote the first draft of “Fahrenheit 451″ on a typewriter that rented for 10 cents a half hour in the basement of a library at the University of California, Los Angeles. The novel, published in 1951, envisions a future in which books are burned to keep people in ignorance.

To read more click here

Stockton’s annual Family Day in the Park is fast approaching! This year, it will be held at the beautiful University Park in Midtown Stockton. It will be on Saturday, September 13, 2008 from 9:30 to 3:30 pm. University Park is located between Magnolia and California streets.

Over 80 businesses and organizations are scheduled to be at the event, and there is something to do for everyone!

The Record has been bringing the Literacy and Book Fair, Family Day at the Park for the past nine years to Stockton’s families. It serves to motivate Stockton’s families by presenting a variety of activities that prepare the youth for a healthy future. Booths such as “Friendly Freeway” and “Library Lane” provide a fun and entertaining afternoon for the entire Family

The Stockton2020 team will also be present at Family Day in the Park, so look for us! We will be located down Library Lane.

Many students overlook the need to use their public libraries while in high school.

Parkway High School teacher Tracy Burrell has a goal to see that every incoming ninth-grade student owns a library card.

On Aug. 12, she invited the Bossier Parish Library Aulds Branch to participate in the back-to-school kickoff for Parkway High School freshmen.

Aulds Branch Manager Ellendell Harbour and I prepared 250 packets and library card forms for the newest Parkway Panthers.

The packets included information about technology resources, research tips, reference help source “ASK a Librarian” cards and bookmarks.

To read more click here!

Complaints are heard world wide of the lackluster spirit of change in today’s youth, 19-year old John Tyler Hammons at the University of Oklahoma begs to differ. He won the mayoral race on May 13, 2008 in Muskogee, Oklahoma, becoming one of the youngest mayors in the country.

“The public placing their trust in me is the greatest, humbling and most awesome experience I’ve ever had in my life,” Hammons said.

John Tyler Hammons won with 70 percent of the vote over former Mayor Hershel Ray McBride after a runoff election for the nonpartisan mayoral post after neither secured 50 percent of the vote in a six-person election on April 1. They were running to replace outgoing Mayor Wren Stratton, who decided not to seek re-election after one term in office.

Hammons serves as a humble reminder that today’s youth are not a lost cause but rather a generation that is thirsty for change and ready to take action.

For further information about John Tyler Hammons please click here.