On Read Across the Globe Day, promote literacy among Scouts

Reading is the greatest tool a child can develop, but they can’t do it alone.

They need your help, and I have just the way. It’s Read Across the Globe Day: Oct. 19, 2015.

On that day, a number of groups — including Points of Light, the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation and the Boy Scouts of America — will join forces to promote literacy across the United States and around the world.

Joining is simple: Grab a favorite book. Gather some Scouts or young people. Read.

You just might change the world.

How to participate with your Scouts

Of course, you can join Read Across the Globe Day simply by reading to your children at home. But you can amplify this pro-literacy message by getting your Scouts involved. There are two ways to do so, and it’s dependent on when your Scout unit meets.

If your Scout unit meets on Mondays, as many do, you’re in luck. Read Across the Globe Day is Oct. 19, 2015 — a Monday. Make reading to Scouts a part of next week’s meeting, and register your event (more on that in a bit).

If you don’t meet on Mondays, it’s not too late to plan and host a reading event. Whether you read to two children or 20, whether they’re Scouts or not, your effort will help spread awareness about the importance of literacy in your community.

How to register your event

To register your event, go here and click on “organize.”

The Boy Scouts of America is a proud partner of Read Across the Globe Day, so be sure to indicate your BSA affiliation when you register your reading event.

Read-Across-the-Globe

For more information, visit pointsoflight.org/readacrosstheglobe or help spread the word on social media using #ReadAcrosstheGlobe.

Boys’ Life and literacy

I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t remind you that Boys’ Life magazine helps promote literacy in young men. It’s one of many reasons that every Scout should subscribe.

In 2013, I helped interview Michael Gurian, child philosopher and co-founder of the Gurian Institute, for Scouting magazine. He shared pages and pages of wisdom on literacy, but I wanted to highlight his answer about how to use Boys’ Life to encourage boys to read.

Use Boys’ Life as the thing the boy is going to need to read for 20 minutes. Let’s say we have a reluctant reader, and he’s 7. He’s going for TV and video games, but he’s not reading. That worries us, and it should. We need a tool. We could go get him Harry Potter, but that might be too complex for him. So why don’t we just give him Boys’ Life? He can read one of the articles aloud with his parent, trading off paragraphs. The parent can also use it for a discussion about something active. Take an article on a baseball player who made a tough choice. At dinner, you talk to your son and say, “Did he do the right thing, or did he not do the right thing?” That’s active use of the magazine as a mechanism. So you’re using Boys’ Life for critical thinking.

Click here to subscribe to Boys’ Life or ask your council to sign your Scout up at the BSA rate.


About Bryan Wendell 3282 Articles
Bryan Wendell, an Eagle Scout, is the founder of Bryan on Scouting and a contributing writer.