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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 1986)
a ¥ Page 4/Friday, June 13, 1966/The Battalion Newspaper wants new readers — literally EL PASO (AP) — lay Ambrose, whose mother mstiOed in him a passion for books, is editor of the afternoon newspaper in this bor der city, where jpme figures show a fifth of the adult population can't read. Ambrose and the £/ Paso Herald-Post have cheerfully de clared war on illiteracv. The strategy is straightforward "Our god is to put together the most ambitious literacy program in the United States, ne said The Herald-Post isn't alone among newspapers in its en deavor More than 700 newspapers nationwide are involved in prom oting literacy, dthough most aim their efforts at children, said Lin da Skover. assistant director of the American Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation, which oversees the 30-year-old News papers in Education program However, the Herald-Post is targeting all ages in El Paso and has enlisted the help of commun ity groups, businesses and indi viduals in a campaign that in cludes: • A weekly literacy column by Herald-Post education reporter E. Patrick McQuaid. • A daily cartoon strip prepared by a psychologist from the Univer sity of Texas-EI Paso designed help parents teach pre »chool< how to read. •Columns by a reading instruc tor at El Paso Community College on how to be a literacy tutor • A regular feature on new books ayaiiabie at the library The newspaper has sponsored to tooiers a contest that challenged children to read 100 books during the school year and held a "Reading Day in the Park.” with storytellers entertaining children and aduhs who then spent the day stretched out on blankets reading Together with Hispanic orga nizations and El Paso Community College, the newspaper formed a committee that arranged the donation by New York publishers of 300,000 unsold books that would otherwise have been burned. A local family has donated “Our goal is to put together the most ambitious literacy program in the United States." — lay Ambrose, editor of the El Paso Herald-Post. warehouse space to store the books, said Kay Taggart, the liter acy program coordinator whose salary comes from a 140.000 fund established by Scripps Howard, the Herald-Post’s parent com pany. specifically for the newspap er's campaign In one of its latest projects, the Herald-Post has established the El Paso Business Consortium for Literacy, where represenutives of 25 businesses have jumped on the bandwagon to support the literacy tampaign Protects in the planning stage in clude helping youngsters on prob ation learn to read and linking cfuMren and a eldeHv neopie in retirement homes . said Ambrose Figures on the rate of illiteracy vary, depending on who's count ing and how they define the problem The 1980 Onsus showed El Paso's population of 470,000 in cluded 106.115 adults who are functionally illiterate The Census Bureau defines as illiterate per sons who haven't gone bevond an eighth-grade education. Deborah Stedman. with the Governor’s Task Force on Adult Literacy, said a federally funded study conducted at the University of Texas in Austin in 1975 took a different approach "They looked at the require ments on an adult in our society: could they fill out a job applica tion. could they come up with a decent, balanced diet, did they know their rights if arrested.'' she said. "Just bits and pieces of litera cy. apply ing bask skills to living in society. Even so, the figures were so bering. Nationally. 19.7 percent of people age 18 or older were func tionally illiterate The figure for Texas was 21.3 percent, and 24.1 percent for El Paso, she said. "There’s also a vicious cycle of illiteracy — children of adult illi terates are often illiterate them selves," said Stedman “Working with parents is a very effective way to break the cycle. Ambrose, whose mother has given his own children books “ail her hfe,” said he’s aware of how difficult it is to make children learn to love reading. White welcomes elderly legislators AUSTIN (AP) — Gov Mark White welcomed newly elected members of the Silver-Haired Legislature Thurs day bv promising that the concerns of elderly Texans will be heard bv the 1987 Legislature "Senior Texans will now have the opportunity to establish legislative priorities for Texas lawmakers to consider in January .’* White told a news conference He received a list of the 116 mem bers of the non-partisan organization of Texans 60 years of age and older from Harriet Griffin of Fort Worth, chairman of the steering committee The Silver-Haired Legislature was created by a resolution of the 1985 Legislature. On Mav 30, about 150,000 older Texans elected the 116 representatives from 28 districts over the state. On Sept 29. the mock Legislature will be convened in the Capitol by White for three days of committee hearings and debate before selecting the issues they think should have priority in A training session for the 116 rep resenutives w ill be held in July by Lt. Gov Bill Hobbv White said Thursday, “I am pleased that Texas has joined a list of 22 other states in sponsoring such a program. "Some might ask why the Silver- Haired legislature was created. For too many years, there was no torum for senior Texans to discuss Issues that concern them and no avenue in w hich to present their concerns to the regular legislature "Senior Texans represent a vast, untapped reserve of knowledge and experience, and their numbers are growing.’’ The governor said that in other states witn a similar program. 70 per cent of the ideas that came out of Silver-Haired Legislatures have be come law. In Arkansas. 90 percent of the proposals later became law, he said. "There is an impressive group coming to Austin." White said, giving as examples the election of a former state representative, two retired judges and three retired educators Although created by the 1985 Legislature, the Silver-Haired Legisl ature was provided no sute money White said hundreds of volunteers in business, government and civic affairs have donated their time to provide coordinating efforts and technical assistance "Senior Texans now have a chance to gain undersunding of the legisla tive process through direct involve ment," White said. "And because of their advocacy experience with the Silver-Haired legislators, they will offer informed assistance to policy- makers here in Austin and in then own communities." ew Summer Rates in Effect Now! 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SpaceOmmp IMF S'lAKS BELONG TO A Nl Wt.F NT RATION ^ /4fkL PG.rtXMtk umwa UrtHSiH •«>', - ’ ——•*-«■ - --■ — * -'•H m .. 2:00 4:30 7:00 9:30 A ti i STALLONE COBRA Ttw atronfi arm of tr*» U*w. •OMMutus ummmm bftour NN. WKMI uwus — .. uontt r cosaeos SYLVESTER S1AU0NE COBRA Mlfcini NMIStN MM' UNIONI . SU«S1I« ItMf - IHNSIfS SIMiMM . flMHJ MStMH. , JMNSS BMUMM’ MHUXtM MUM TU**M Utttus H UMWi ' CBUM’in re “ABSOLUTELY SENSATIONAL! Take the day off and see this one” Jeffrey Lyons, Sneak Previews FERRIS DUELLER’S DAY OFF On* man’s struggle to taka It aasy. A |OMM HUCMCS rtkM I JOHN HUGMCS .. TOM IACOMON WU* JOHN 9 mion»r w—M*.' :20 7:40 9:50 Paul Stevens' high school science project won’t get him better grade s. It trill make luni the* inosi dangerous mail on t .tstli. He just httili an atomic IioiiiIi. PROJECT «» ^H> \