Reading Capital of the World

Tift folks tiptop in reading (One for the books: County lays claim to title of Reading Capital of the World)

By: Jingle Davis

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

11/15/2000

     Dr. Seuss would have been proud.

     About 7,000 adults and schoolchildren in this rural South Georgia community gathered for a celebration at the Tift County High School football stadium Wednesday to sing, cheer and read aloud – more or less in unison – a minute-long passage from “The Cat in the Hat,” one of the late author’s most popular books.

     That accomplishment, along with the accumulation of more than 1 million points in a nationwide reading program, should be enough to get Tift County into the Guinness Book of World Records, according to Tifton Mayor Paul O. Johnson. He went ahead and proclaimed Tift the “Reading Capital of the World”

     “The numbers are in. We claim victory. No recount is forthcoming,” the mayor said, provoking laughter and cheers from the crowd.

     Tift’s effort to be recognized as the world’s reading capital began in 1996 when elementary school media specialist Teri Nalls applied to the Tift County Foundation for Excellence in Education for a $3,500 grant to begin an accelerated reading program at Charles Spencer Elementary School. The computerized accelerated reading program, invented and marketed by a Wisconsin couple, Judi and Terry Paul, is used in about 50,000 schools nationwide, according to the Pauls, who attended Wednesday’s event.

     The program was designed to encourage children to read, said Ronnie Noble, foundation president and area manager of Georgia Power.

     “The emphasis is on literacy, especially catching at-risk kids,” he said. “Every time the kids read
a book and passed a computerized comprehension test on it, they’d get a small prize.”

     In addition to prizes, students accumulated points based on the book’s difficulty, he said. “You’d get a half a point for Dr. Seuss,” Noble said, “War and Peace’ is a 130-pointer.”

     When schools reached their yearly point goals, students also got to see school principals and
faculty members make fools of themselves – by kissing or wrestling pigs, spending the day on rooftops and dancing like the Supremes, for instance.

     In 1997, the foundation’s executive director, Mike Brumby, decided to challenge students – and
community adults – to go for a million accelerated reading points before the end of 2000, Nobel said. Adult readers who completed books and passed comprehension tests could donate points to their favorite schools.

     A number of area businesses and the foundation donated money, typically 25 to 50 cents per
point, to schools for every point their employees accumulated. The money was used to buy more books, Noble said.

     “Our goal was to increase reading awareness in the whole community, to see an increase in
reading test scores in all of the schools, and to increase circulation at the public library by 50 percent,” he said. “We blew that out the window because we topped 100 percent.”

     School reading test scores are still being tallied, but some schools have reported increases of
almost 15 percent, Nobel said.

     The program created hot competition between students, parent, community leaders and organizations. The Rotarians challenged the Kiwanis Club, for example.

     Mayor Johnson read 12 books and earned more than 300 points.

     The 63-year old mayor, who has a doctoral degree in adult education from the University of
Georgia, admitted the program prompted him to read “Gone With the Wind” for the first time.

     “I’d seen the movie many times, but I’d never read the book,” he said. “It was a challenge but it was wonderful. Every Georgian should read it.”

     Kelcie Gilmore 7, did almost as well as the mayor, accumulating about 200 points for reading many books in the Box Car Children” series as well as stories from “The New Adventure Bible.”

     My dad as 26 points after reading two Harry Potter books but my mother doesn’t have any,”
Kelcie declared. Her mother, Melanie Gilmore, a Wal-Mart pharmacist, said defensively, ‘I’ve read the books. I just haven’t taken the tests yet.”

     Tift reached its million-point goal and passed it about a month ago, said Brumby, who said readers of all ages had plowed through more than 900,000 books and earned more than $30,000 in donated funds to buy more. The books of the “Harry Potter” series were among the most popular, his wife, Moppy said.

     Judi Paul said national publicity about the South Georgia community’s achievement has prompted about 30 other communities across the country to call for information on how to challenge Tift’s right to the title of world reading capital.

     “You are going to influence communities throughout this nation,” Paul said.