John Simon, Brigid Hubberman and I just returned from a very exciting trip to New York City where we performed Read Along Songs at the nationally acclaimed Harlem Children’s Zone . It was an amazing experience!  We visited one of their Promise Academy Charter School sites, and performed the songs for appreciative and enthusiastic audiences of kindergarten through third graders, staff and administrators.  There was an electric buzz throughout the day!

The NYS Human Rights Commission issued a final order directing the Ithaca City School District to take immediate actions to address discrimination and racial disharmony within our schools. For specific details of the order, please see pages 12-13 in the document here.

As the significant impact of Read-Along Songs continues to spread, it also supports Village at Ithaca goals in a number of ways.  Reading is very essential to learning, and early literacy makes it much easier for young children to access education once they start school.  Without a basic literacy foundation to build on, children start school behind and, unfortunately, tend to fall further and further behind.

Recently, I visited a number of elementary schools with Joanne Church, librarian at Dewitt Middle School, and Adelle Leise, from the Tompkins County Public Library (TCPL).  We met with 5th graders who will be entering middle school in the fall and encouraged them to do some pleasure reading over the summer.  We reminded them that reading helps retain learning ("keeps their brains in condition") so they won’t fall behind in school.  Reading is much more than a skill, it’s a lifestyle!

Harvard University announced over the weekend that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families will pay no tuition. In making the announcement, Harvard's president Lawrence H. Summers said, "When only 10 percent of the students in Elite higher education come from families in lower half of the income distribution, we are not doing enough. We are not doing enough in bringing elite higher education to the lower half of the income distribution."