Forget SAT scores, forget honors placement. Can our schoolchildren read well enough to figure out a bus schedule, complete a job application or read instructions for a technical job?

A dark cloud of illiteracy is settling over this television generation. A telling example of the power the tube has gained over children is that in one Bountiful sixth-grade class almost all of the kids could name the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but only one boy knew who Winston Churchill was. The children who stumble in school are likely to become early dropouts; victims of drug abuse, crime and poverty.Kaye Warner, while working as a volunteer with pregnant teens, realized that the critical place to intervene is in the early primary grades. Warner, who is a member of the Utah Association of Women, joined with UAW president Julia Aposhian and Mary Hausen, director of Literacy Volunteers of America, and lit the fire that will ultimately glow in Utah schools with 1,000 literacy volunteers.

Is the problem really serious?

"There are 100,000 fifth-graders who are at risk for reading difficulty," Warner says. Based on the national average, fifth-grade students in Utah have a reading level of only 53 percent. At least one-third are below the national average, Warner says.

Forty-two "master trainers" received 30 hours of specialized training to help train and provide support for the tutors who will work directly in the classroom with the children. These tutors do more than just listen to children read. "The tutors learn how to teach consonant blends, word patterns and phonics, and how to ask questions in a non-intimidating manner to increase the child's reading comprehension," Warner explained. The 43 master trainers hold 12 master's degrees, 17 bachelor's degrees and the rest have at least three years of college.

Warner decries the toll television has taken on reading in the home. "If there's one message we need to get out, it is, `Parents, read to your kids!' Parents may think if they have their children watch `Sesame Street' they've done enough to encourage reading. But if the children learn the sounds but don't connect them with actual reading, they will process it as only entertainment," Warner explained.

One kindergarten teacher told her, "To the kids coming to school, I should dress in a clown suit, do a tap dance for five minutes and then change into Big Bird."

Another problem Warner sees is that people think `My kids are OK, I don't need to be involved.' " She points to the social ills of drug abuse, teen pregnancy, poverty and homelessness. "We need a trained work force. These societal problems affect us all," she said.

More than 100 people wanted to volunteer in one school in Salt Lake's Avenues district. "But we need them to come down off the hill to the inner schools," Warner said. "Too many people say that illiteracy is a problem we can't do anything about. We're saying `Yes, you can!' We're filling in the cracks. We don't want anyone to fall through."

- MASTER TRAINERS for the Thousand Points of Light on Literacy include: Vonda Thorpe, Laurie Parker, Afton Timothy, Barbara Fish, Julia Aposhian, Peggy Whitehead, Joann Goodrich, Pam Bawden, Carolyn Washburn, Ronna Leyba, Marilyn Bulkey, Mona Bottema, Katherine Stratford, Mary Johnson, Sandra Skouson, Jayne Hadfield, Ann Bowen, George Rosenthal, Rowena Carter, Colleen Thompson, Dianne Strasser, Mary Lou Day, Jaye Binkerd, Suzan Buchmiller, Clara O. Snell, Kathy Cummings, Janice Barton, Dawn Curtis, Kerrie Prince, Kristie Maxfield, Dineh Torres, Elaine Daniels, Janiel Wagstaff, Barbara Drake, Helen Glissmeyer, Susan Petersen, Bonnie Sprinkel, Joann Billings, Jolayne Chadwick, Candice Blackburn, Ann Young and Tracey Tonks.

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(Additional information)

Training conference

What: A Thousand Points of Light on Literacy training conference: The whole language approach to reading tutoring.

When: Friday, Sept. 13, from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 14, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Where: Murray High School, 5440 S. State St.

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Sponsors: The Utah Association of Women with the support of the Utah State Office of Education, Aetna Life Insurance, Utah Power & Light, Kennecott Copper, US WEST, Pepsi Cola Co. and the Ogden Internal Revenue Service.

Training by: Mary Hausen of Literacy Volunteers of America.

Keynote Address: Linda Eyre, honorary chairman, on "Voluntarism and the Practical Power of Literacy."

Sign-ups: Volunteers must call by Saturday, Sept. 7, to register for free tutoring. Call Kaye Warner at 582-2896 or 977-0900, or contact the Utah Association of Women at 363-3420.

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