Starting Sept. 8, kids at one elementary school in California’s Central Valley are getting a special kind of vending machine, dispensing free books.
The machine is part of the new Learn Without Limits movement from the nonprofit Save the Children, launching in honor of International Literacy Day.
Lucero Chavez Ramirez, California state director for Save the Children, said the kids at Monson-Sultana Elementary outside Visalia will get a head start on building their own personal libraries.
“Children will earn tokens for data successes in school that they can then use to choose free books,” Ramirez explained. “That ownership is a really powerful motivator to get kids excited about becoming readers.”
Ramirez said reading proficiency by third grade is one of the strongest predictors of future academic success and long-term economic opportunities.
Save the Children just published new Rural Child Well-Being Dashboards and an accompanying report. The report showed in California, rural students are a full grade level behind or more in reading, hampered by poverty, food insecurity and a lack of community options for childcare.
Mary McInerney, national head of program implementation for Save the Children, said early learning supports are crucial because when students fall behind in reading, it affects morale and the ability to succeed in other subjects, like math, social studies and science.
“Grade-level materials have become frustrating, overwhelming. Children become disengaged. Confidence goes down. Children just see themselves as a failure,” McInerney explained.
Save the Children works on kindergarten readiness, school-age literacy and math proficiency in Del Norte, Los Angeles, San Diego and Tulare counties, and serves 720,000 children nationally.
