As a kid of the 80s I grew up watching Reading Rainbow and loved LeVar Burton!

Thankfully, I grew up in a family of readers. No matter whose house we went to, books were everywhere. I didn't want to learn to read, at first, I liked being read to, but after dinner, mom forced me to sit at the table and read out loud for an hour until my 1st grade teacher reported that I was level with the other kids. We were low-income, and the library was our best friend.

This is not just a matter of income. My kids went to one of the poorest districts in town, but literacy in the school was very high because the teachers made reading essential. The school was 1/3 English as a second language, but no one left that school unable to read. It is about us making a commitment to our children.

Lets give Levar Burton his flowers, has been an inspirational figure to the black community with a positive message, and no scandals or controversy

In the ‘80s, we were taught with phonics. Japanese is also taught with phonics as well (hiragana and katakana) in primary and foreign language education.

Wow, this is heartbreaking. Reading is a basic thing that our kids deserve the privilege of.

Levar Burton was an inspiration growing up to love reading and I am 31 years old now. Thank you sir!

At the elementary level, we need to stop the overtesting of our children and we desperately need systems for handling the significant increase in disruptive behaviors which inhibits teachers from teaching and students from learning. Elementary school should be a calm, safe haven of childhood focusing on learning to read, math, science experiments, art, music, and play. They need to learn how to handle frustrations, be creative, and appreciate each other and the world around them. And yes...we need evidence based curriculum that does not limit the art of teaching. We need to remember we are teaching CHILDREN; not just collecting data.

God bless Levar. In our increasingly post-literate society we need every reading champion there is.

In my state, we have adopted Science of Reading as our standard methodology that lines up with what was recommended in the video. There are still more factors to overcome. Parents need to show their kids that education is a priority by limiting screen time, making sure kids are at school, and well rested. I teach kindergarten, and no matter how many times or ways I try to express it to parents, they still have this image in their mind that kindergarten is play time. They don't comprehend that their students are learning phonics and are expected to read sentences containing high frequency words, cvc words, and open syllable words fluently by the end of the year. Education is a partnership between schools and families, and it takes both for students to recognize the value of reading and learn to read.

Hi GMA - Please name them! That's the only way things will change. Call those companies out. I'm sitting in a district that JUST purchased more misaligned materials.

In Virginia, the new governor mandated a phonics curriculum in all public schools. His best move yet!

I often remember my first grade teacher for giving me the power of reading. It's incredible that we have this problem in our society.

Exactly on point. Thanks Levar and Jenny for this eye-opening film.

Great to hear Jenny and LeVar ! We’re part of the movement to improve literacy levels here in Scotland and worldwide 🤓🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿📚

This is so interesting as I depended on reading growing up and follow so many book clubs including Oprah's and am still a voracious reader...Reading/literacy is the pathway and an integral part of success. With education on the back-burner so much of the time, it is infuriating to see so many young kids deprived of these human rights! Writers are rockstars and we have to do better for these up and coming generations!!

It’s not just the school system and curriculum at fault. The parents need to step up, and do more at home. In some low-income families though, that’s just not possible, no matter how good the teacher is. So the child needs extra help, and shouldn’t feel ashamed to ask for it. Some kids will hide the fact that they’re illiterate. They fall through the cracks. 😢

Kids need to READ and READ more often! Then they need to write and talk about what they’ve read!!

My family surrounded me with books from the time I was born. Doesn't matter your color, doesn't matter your wealth. My second home was the library and used books are cheap. Reading was championed like my future depended on it. That's what is missing from children's lives... parents and extended family that actually care about children's futures. Show me a child that can't read and I will show you a self-absorbed parent.

Reading begins at home and continues at home when the child gets home from school. Stop blaming teachers. My parents taught me how to read and I couldn’t wait to show my teachers what I knew when I got to school. Have you ever taken public transportation, every one has their heads down on their cellphones and I’m sure it’s the same way at home.

I have lived in many countries and I have learned a lot of people can’t read and neither can their parents. How do you expect kids to learn to read when the parents can’t.

Thank you LaVar Burton and Jenny Mackenzie! I am a reading intervention teacher, and I agree 100%! If anyone wants to learn more about this topic, I would also recommend a limited series podcast called "Sold a Story".

Why aren't we blaming the parents....????

Please Levar Burton bring the show back. Hope you get back to minsterie. I hope to meet you some day.

There's nothing preventing people from going to public libraries and checking out multitudes of books for absolutely free, for weeks-months-years on end!

These same educators had the schools closed for almost 2 years during COVID. SRA was used for many years at my school. Our reading scores where very close to, at or exceeded the our State scores throughout that time. Once curriculum changed, scores dipped & haven't rebounded. The 4 "BIG" school districts that drive the curriculum are California, Texas, New York & Florida. Book publishers publish what ever these states ask for. Change can happen if they truly want it!!!

Need to take in account the 2 almost 3 years of education that was cancelled and missed due to covid - of course we are dipping, need to see the whole picture -

I remember watching episodes of Reading Rainbow in elementary school.

This man aged so well. He still looks the same only thing different is grey hair

Stop stop Gayle! Schools teach reading as a backup to what happens at home, it is not the primary teacher. I am an educator and I'm always shocked kids start kindergarten and they don't know anything! they don't know their letters, they don't know anything about letter sounds, they don't know their colors. they can't count to ten and they don't know how to write their own names. Parents, what have you been doing with them for five years besides plunking them in front of the TV or iPad? You taught them how to put food in their mouths and how to put a cup to their mouths you can expose them to the alphabet and the sounds letters make as well. It's literally everywhere. Even with the best curriculum it takes time at home to reinforce what they learn at school especially during summer. Parents just start asking kids about the sounds they here and words even as you drive them down the road to soccer practice: tell me all the sounds you hear in the word cat? That's the beginning of phonemic awareness. I work in a district who does use scientifically-based curriculum known as direct instruction and heggerty phonemic awareness. It's very effective. It's a great start. But we need parental support to do these minuscule reading supports at home to reinforce the learning over holidays and summer and weekends. We are talking about a total of 20 minutes a day to listen to your child read and correct their sound recognition errors. So simple but parents often refuse to do the minimum to help reinforced reading skills at home and say things like you just did it's the schools job. I am a reading intervention specialist and I cannot stress enough how important it is for parents to just talk about the sounds you hear in words at home or make a game out of it with flashcards for the sight words that you can't sound out. We send summer packets home with every child and only a few out of 800 complete it. Parents have a job as well in all of this. It breaks my heart when they drop the ball as if reading is something that you can catch by itself.

Where can you view this documentary for free?

You get away with it and never being responsible for your actions!! This my opinion what is already on the social media to investigate 🔬

Levar Burton is my hero in TV: past = Roots, Present = Reading Rainbow Future = Star Trek TNG.

The kids are set in front of the television set and the programs that they are watching are crime, sex, stupid . Parents don't monitor the child tv watching

We have gotten away from so much of what we need for healthy successful lives in this country. So much, so that things like clean water, safe schools and now even basic reading abilities are at stake. And at the bottom of all of these problems, like Lavar said, is greed and a non responsive government that creates more billionaires and more homeless people simultaneously, than any other industrialized nation on Earth. For a time we held onto a perch of progressive and prosperous futures for most citizens, but that is no longer true, we are slipping off and may not be able to climb back on without the real effort of a majority of Americans.

AMEN AMEN 🙏🏾 🙌🏾 👏🏾

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Maybe people will start to teaching how to read online

Here is a research for EDU Academic Achivement : ( Asian 62% ) ( White 48 % ) ( Hispanic 22% ) ( Black 11% ). This is why we must fix U.S. edu sys. PISA Worldwide Ranking : ( China # 1 ) ( Singapore # 2 ) ( Macao # 3 ) ( Hongkong # 4 ) ( Japan # 5 ) ( S. Korea # 6 ) ( Taiwan # 7 ) ( USA # 25 ). Fix edu !!!

It's the parents fault if you don't teach your children to read

I actually take issue with this. My 6th grader is reading and learning literacy-based lessons I learned in the 10th grade. We are NOT comparing apples to apples here. We are pushing kids to read earlier and earlier and it becomes unreasonable to expect that all children have the same capacity to learn at the same rates. I hated reading until about 6th grade, struggling with it. Then, I just "got it" and started to love it. These statistics are meant to be provocative. Now, this said, there *is* an unacceptable discrepancy regarding reading resources and instruction for children of color, particularly black and brown children. This is a serious issue that deserves support, funding and more research. We know that when kids get support for reading at home, they are much more likely to read. What support are we providing their caretakers/parents so that they don't have to work 2-3 jobs just to pay the rent and buy food?

I'm curious if the low scores are in mainly red states?

Too much screen time and parents that do not read.

Socialist totalitarian feminist teachers banned reading out loud, secretly and covertly. My boys had poor speech and poor reading skills, I made them read out loud every day for tv/computer tokens. The boys grades went from Es to Bs. I eventually learnt to read at 38 and reading out loud help my temper, it helped my speech.

It all starts at home. If parents don't value reading and making sure their children are prepared, then of course there will be problems. There's a reason why Asians had the highest proficiency level, yet no one brings that up.

What took you so long!! My son could not read. I bought hooked on phonics and taught him myself. Lucy Calkins did this to our children.

Comes down to the parent's ultimately Be better Moms and Dads and be involved with your kids as much as possible. Thats what i try to do as a father of 2 Love and peace

NO ...START BLAMING THE STUPID PARENTS!!!!!!!

This is so sad! I knew it was bad but not this bad! My Lord! They can't even read. That is a crying shame before God! If they can't read, they can't get a job. If they can't get a job, they will steal or sell drugs. This type of behavior will put them in jail. Something needs to be done to save these children instead of all the lip service! They need to be taught how to read. What ever happened to the 3 R's? Reading, writing, arithmetic? They don't even know the basics! Lord Jesus, You know this is not right! The young people in China have their Master's degrees. Our children can't even read! That is bull!

Sorry but bringing race into the picture is not the problem. Low income families come in all colors, so please stop!

Pipe line to prison(is the bottom line) with nooooo phonics and increase parent involvement (charity starts at home)!! Like Obama once said in 2011 in the econom crisis most parents don't love their children enou

Stop using contractions.

How is this POSSIBLE, Are you Serious,I would love to look at them put little fingers on a book and rub it,Smell the Newness, if you can but, being patient and sitting no phone for adults but, just enjoying the children for once. My folks did.

Stop making everything into race 😂🤣

Look no further than all of the touch pad smart devices (phones, tablets) that all kids have access to from a very young age. Why would a young kid get excited about reading a book when a virtual world of fantastic digital imagery and games is so readily available right at their fingertips?