Project Phongsali 2011: Teachers are thankful for Book Box Libraries. For the first time, students have reading books in their hands.

WHWV donors have provided nearly 50 schools with their first reading books. Usually the boxed libraries are not only the first books in the school. They are often the only books in the village.

Week Two

Day Twelve:

Today we trucked back to Sop Houn to discuss with the village teachers their use of two “Book Box Libraries” that our project donated last year.  This is the first school year that students have had literature books to read.   In the past, as is the case in over 90% of Lao schools, they could only read words written by their teacher on the classroom chalkboard.

Over the past ten years our donors have provided nearly 50 villages with boxed libraries, each consisting of 200 books in the Lao or Hmong language.  Reading levels within the libraries vary, from primary to high school levels.

In addition to students, the libraries also provide village adults with opportunities to read.  In one village, a teacher confessed that she pulled a dozen books from the collection to enjoy at home before turning them over to students.  In another village we happened upon a young adult sitting comfortably in the shade of a tree, engrossed in a book from her child’s school.  She told us that on weekends and after-school-hours her daughter’s teacher permits parents to check out books to read at home.

At the Sop Houn school the books were being put to good use.   Teachers granted students a “free reading” period so they could show me their favorite books and demonstrate their skills.  Reading levels varied greatly within classrooms but all students shared one thing in common: if students didn’t read in school, they didn’t read at all.  Time and again students told me that they had no reading matter at home.

Interestingly, at every grade level students read aloud.  Not because they were demonstrating their skills to a visitor, but because they had not yet mastered “silent reading”.  Young students read boisterously; high schoolers read in whispered tones, but all read aloud.

After I received ceremonial thanks from the head teacher, school was dismissed for the day and I was led to a teacher’s home to enjoy a feast laid out in my honor.  All nine teachers joined Yai and me at the table and peppered me with questions about American schools.  Over the course of the evening every teacher approached me individually to thank me for the books and to apologize for not having a suitable gift to offer in return.  I explained that the true donors were the people whose names are painted on the book box.

In the case of Sop Houn, one of the boxed libraries was donated by a retired nurse from Decorah, Iowa.  The other was a gift from two teachers in the Wausau, Wisconsin public school system.