As we celebrate this year’s Human Rights Week, I couldn’t help but think of our mission statement at Scholastic. As we all know, human rights are conceived as universal and are granted to everyone no matter their income, nationality, religion or age. At Scholastic we believe reading and writing is the birth right of every child and is the gateway to a successful future.
As children today grow up in a world filled with print and digital information, it is critical for them to be confident and fluent readers across all platforms. Reading provides children with the opportunities that will allow them to hold a job, understand the world, and better know themselves. To support our reading and writing belief’s we created the Scholastic Bill of Rights.
At Scholastic, WE BELIEVE that literacy – the ability to read, write and understand – is the birthright of every child in the world as well as the pathway to succeed in school and to realize a complete life. Young people need to read nonfiction for information to understand their world, and literature for imagination to understand themselves.
In addition to the Scholastic Bill of Rights we are proud to have a number of educational experts and authors who support our mission. Our longtime friend, Phyllis Hunter is a huge advocate for children’s literacy. Phyllis is widely known for coining the phrase “reading is the new civil right.” In this video below Phyllis talks about the importance of all children being good and strategic readers:
