News came last week that Zadie Smith, the 38 year-old English writer was named to the shortlist for the BBC’s National Short Story Award. In this installment of “A Text at Work” we invite discussion on Zadie Smith’s short story, “Moonlit Landscape with Bridge”.
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Summer offers an opportunity to read widely and deeply – not only because reading is illuminating and invigorating, but because we may even find more time to dig into a longer or more challenging book. Without good summer reading, we face the possibility of a summer slide. As fall officially descends later this month, let’s commit to continuing reading substantive, challenging, thought-provoking books every season of the year.
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In order to realize our mission of more engaged reading as a community of learners and thinkers, we need greater investment in building basic literacy skills. That is why basic literacy programs – including efforts to support grade level reading and early childhood intervention – are so important. Basic literacy is a gateway for lifelong learning and the expansion of educational and economic opportunities. We honor and celebrate this work on International Literacy Day.
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Labor Day offers an opportunity for politicians and economists to offer their two cents on the state of labor. It’s a good bet that some of that commentary will focus on the so-called “skills gap”—the notion that millions of jobs in highly technical fields remain unfilled while millions of Americans without those skills remain unemployed. The solution according to the pundits? Education and training that focuses on technical skills. If only it were so simple.
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Professional development opportunities are big business. An industry trade organization reports that American corporations spent over $160 billion on workforce training and development in 2012, an average expenditure of over $1000 per employee. Yet how often do those professional development dollars flow to the school bus driver, the warehouse worker, or the shop floor employee of a food services company? Rarely.
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In which we welcome our new Academic Director, Rachel Burstein, to Books@Work. As Rachel writes: “I am joining Books@Work as the Academic Director because I can think of no more important project than the work of helping readers engage texts deeply, profoundly, and in potentially life-changing ways.” Please help us welcome her to the fold!
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What really happens when employees participate in Books@Work? While participants tell us that getting to know their colleagues and sharing perspectives is the number one reason they enjoy the program, what exactly does this collective reflection have to do with work? New research suggests that not only is collective reflection relevant, it just might make your employees more productive!
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As Americans prepare to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it is worth remembering the long tradition of poetry dedicated to national identity. The best of this poetry is both challenging and affirmative, declaring, as Walt Whitman does in “I Hear America Singing,” “the varied carols” of each person “singing what belongs to him and her.” Such literature beckons us to what Lincoln called a “more perfect union.”
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To add to your summer reading, we are offering James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” as our latest text at work, a tale of an “everyman” who escapes from his daily life through elaborate fantasies of bravado and adventure. This story was recently part of a seminar at the Maple Heights City Schools in Maple Heights, OH. When discussing the story, program participants explored the role of fantasy in their own lives, realizing that Walter Mitty may not be as strange as he first appears.
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Whereas traditional college students can sometimes find it challenging to relate ideas and concepts to their own views and lives (perhaps due to their youth and inexperience), Books@Work groups are diverse, and the discussion include a rich variety of reactions and inferences about literature. Participants have a lifetime of experiences that give them insight into characters and storylines.
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