MARGARET WENTE
Globe and Mail: September 20, 2007
Church Street Junior Elementary is a typical inner-city school in Toronto. It's a lively place, with kids from 30 different countries, lots of single-parent families, hardworking teachers. It used to be typical in another way as well. It had virtually no library books.
Heather Reisman first heard about the school when a city councillor named Kyle Rae gave her a call. The school is in his ward. So is Ms. Reisman's flagship Indigo store, just a few blocks away. He begged her to donate a few boxes of books.
"I must have had a slow day, so I went over," she says. "There weren't more than 50 books in the whole library. They were old and tattered. I picked up a book, and it smelled." She was stunned. This wasn't the Third World. This was Canada in 2001.
Ms. Reisman met the school's principal, Judy Gillis, and told her she could have anything she wanted. Today, the spacious library is crammed with books. The kids love the place. "You think of J. K. Rowling and all those kids who really want to read," says Ms. Gillis.
That visit planted the seed of the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation, a charitable initiative that funds school libraries across Canada. To date it has donated more than $4.5-million to 30 elementary schools.
Schools without books? We've got hundreds of them. When funding cutbacks hit the system, the libraries were the first to go. Everywhere, the focus is on early literacy. But what's the point of teaching reading if there aren't any books to read? "The single biggest factor in kids reading is just seeing books around," says Henry Giroux, professor of English and cultural studies at McMaster University.
In Ontario, former lieutenant-governor James Bartleman attracted enormous public support with his campaign to supply books to kids on native reserves. Few people know that kids in Winnipeg, Vancouver, Halifax and Thunder Bay are just as needy. Most schools depend on private fundraising to buy library books. So schools in poorer neighbourhoods lose out. "We have a two-tier system in public education," says Ms. Reisman. "It's the most disadvantaged who are most affected. You simply can't bake-sale your way out of this.
"Yesterday, to raise awareness, she launched a PR campaign that features a short, powerful documentary about the foundation's work. She'd like to show it to every provincial premier. In one scene, a kid displays the sum total of what's available for a class research project. "One book!" he says indignantly, waving it. In another scene, a teacher comments, "We have whole shelves where the newest book is from 1978. How can kids relate to that?" One school principal, with tears in her eyes, says, "What it would mean to walk into a whole library - it just would be so wonderful! It would be surreal, almost.
"Since the program started, hundreds of schools have applied for funding. The lucky winners get $150,000 each - a fabulous sum to a school whose total library budget might be $163. "When I call the schools, you'd think they were getting a million dollars," says Ms. Reisman.
Ms. Reisman's awareness campaign wasn't timed to coincide with the Ontario election in Ontario. But it hasn't hurt. Yesterday she got the Premier, Dalton McGuinty, to show up at her store and announce an extra $120-million for reading books and school librarians. Although some people may be inclined to see her initiative as basically a PR exercise, Ms. Gillis doesn't think so. "She loves reading herself, and she loves kids." Many of Indigo's employees are also heavily involved. Ms. Reisman says raising literacy levels, by giving kids access to books, is the one great difference she wants her company to make.
In a country where, by one measure, 42 per cent of adults lack basic literacy skills, that's a pretty good goal to have. After all, literacy isn't just about building a more productive economy. It's also about creating citizens.
mwente@globeandmail.com
