[photopress:little_girl_raise_hand__1108.jpg,thumb,pp_style]By Nettie H. Francis

Everything I need to know I learned in family council.

Wait. You mean, Kindergarten, right? Everything I need to know I learned in Kindergarten. Isn’t that how it goes?

Nope. Everything I need to know I learned in Family Council. Let me explain.

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[photopress:Reading_on_Floor_908.jpg,thumb,pp_style]By Lu Ann Brobst Staheli

You can lead a horse to water . . . but you can’t make him drink. Unfortunately, this statement is applicable all too often to children within the public school system. The first week of school, I asked students in my reading class to share the titles of ten books they had either read by themselves, or that someone had read to them, which they would recommend to others. Several of these eighth and ninth grade students admitted they had never read an entire book on their own. They have been expected to read throughout their school career. How does it happen that they get to junior high school without having read?

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