Feat Says Volumes About Kids’, Parents’ Zeal

On Oct. 4, about 70 second-graders at Raymond Temple Elementary School in Buena Park were given quite a task to accomplish: Their teachers set a goal for them to read 2,000 books before 2000.

Phew.

And to top it off, the end of the year to them would actually be Dec. 17, since that is the last day of school before winter break.

Double phew.

But the young bookworms came through, and by Nov. 18 they had read 2,343 books, beating the target date by several weeks and surpassing the target number.

“We thought it would be a tough goal,” teacher Linda Harris said. “We set the goal high because we wanted them to have something to really reach for. But they met the goal a month early.”

The second-grade teachers said they usually create reading incentive programs for their students, but they wanted to give this one an edge. To celebrate, several characters will be visiting the classrooms this week to personally congratulate the students, and each class will be receiving a gift.

Much of the credit, teachers say, belongs to the parents.

“Our students would never have been able to achieve this on their own without the cooperation of their moms and dads,” Principal Linda Rader said.

Harris said it’s the parents who recorded the books read every night for the goal and who throughout the school year spend their time listening, correcting and being responsive to their children as they perfect their reading skills.

For second-grader Michael Bain, reaching the goal was cool but it’s the reading itself that makes him happy.

The 7-year-old with the wide smile says reading takes him to other worlds.

You can find out about stuff that happened a long time ago, he said, such as Pilgrims and the Mayflower and what men did “to get gold” during the Gold Rush days, when their consuming search for the precious metal created a whole new facet in California history.

But mostly, he said, it can take you to an imaginary place like “Pokemon world,” referring to the latest kid craze.

Maria Prado’s favorite book is a dictionary because it “tells me words I don’t understand.” Even though she is often busy with her two younger sisters, the 7-year-old found time to read 124 books, making her one of the top readers in her class. But that doesn’t come without effort. She said she often has to lock herself in her room so she can find the solitude to read in peace and escape her noisy family.

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Ana Cholo-Tipton can be reached at (714) 966-5890.