Gavel passes at 4th General Session

The responsibility for leading the International Reading Association passed from former President Richard Allington to incoming President Timothy Shanahan Thursday morning at the 4th General Session of IRA's 51st Annual Convention.

Allington said he had the "bittersweet duty" to say goodbye to outgoing Board members Charline Barnes, Carrice Cummins, and Rita Bean. "We're more than colleagues," he said, "I think we've become lifelong friends." Then, taking the gavel, Shanahan said that globalization and technology are driving a revolution in literacy as dramatic as the changes seen centuries ago with the Reformation and the advent of the printing press. Educators are being asked to help students attain unprecedented levels of literacy skills. IRA would faithfully work to help people gain those skills and make the most of their opportunities, Shanahan said, but he added that literacy skills have always been used not just to contribute to society, but to enrich the lives of individuals. He urged educators who disagree on the ways and means to those ends to debate those questions with mutual respect, and called on teachers everywhere to work together for the betterment of children's lives.

Then keynote speaker Rosemary Wells, the author of 126 children's books, described a new book intended more for adults—My Shining Star: Raising a Child Who Is Ready to Learn. To write it, she talked to a wide variety of teachers to see what parents can do to help their children succeed in the classroom and in life. She said the dislocation of the basic family unit by divorce and poverty contributes to a lack of school preparedness, but so does too much time spent at the country club and shopping mall. Time spent with electronic media, especially at very young ages, was another concern Wells raised, and she recommended that children not be exposed to these media until age 10, when their brains are more developed, until we learn more about the potential dangers to their development.

Finally Wells lauded the assembled conferees and their colleagues in the field. "Each one of you is a miracle worker in your classroom and community," she said.