AFTER DEADLINE
Newspaper in classroom helps to enrich learning

By Anne Harpham

Every time you pick up a copy of The Advertiser, you are picking up a classroom textbook.

It's not a traditional textbook, of course, and unless it is clipped and saved, it isn't likely to be in a student's possession as long, but newspapers are a part of many children's school days.

For almost 40 years, The Advertiser has been actively involved in a program to bring newspapers into classrooms and help teachers enrich learning by exposing students to current events.

Under the Newspaper in Education program, The Advertiser is made available to schools at a discounted rate. Teachers can use the paper to teach current events, geography, technology, history, art, reading, life skills and more.

Sure, it's smart business for us. It makes reading a newspaper a familiar process to students who may not be exposed to a daily paper at home.

But more important, it helps students get into the habit of reading. Statistics show that students in schools with some NIE programs did 10 percent better on standardized tests than students in schools with no NIE program.

It also helps bring the world and current events into children's classrooms.

We don't mind saying we hope students develop a love affair with reading, making the newspaper a part of their daily lives and becoming involved citizens. We don't presume to think reading a newspaper is the only way to do that, but it is certainly one way. And we hope the newspaper can be a resource for teachers — not to supplant textbooks but as one more part of the learning process.

We have community partners in this effort — business people who help sponsor the program because they see the value of literacy and an educated workforce.

Feedback from educators tells us that teachers use the newspaper to help teach current events, economics, the stock market, reading and English. They say using the newspaper as a classroom resource helps teach about life situations and life skills.

And teachers tell us the newspaper can help make reading more pleasurable and interesting for youngsters with poor reading habits. These students may not be interested in picking up a book for the sheer pleasure of reading. But they may enjoy reading about sports, so teachers can use that hook to help them develop better reading habits.

The Advertiser is distributed in more than half the schools in the Islands and more than two-thirds of Hawai'i's public schools. And the number is growing.

The Advertiser's Newspaper in Education program also sponsors or co-sponsors events such as the Honolulu Advertiser Spelling Bee and the high school journalism contest.

The district-level spelling bees are under way, and the state spelling bee will be on March 14.

And soon, high school newspaper staffs will be preparing their entries to see who is judged the best. That contest also is sponsored by the Hawaii Publishers Association and its members.

Newspapers in Education also offers tours of the News Building for students who want to learn how the newspaper is put together. To schedule a tour, call Jennifer Dang at 525-7660.

We're proud to be a small part of any effort to instill a lifelong thirst for learning in the generations of the future.

Senior editor Anne Harpham is The Advertiser's reader representative. Reach her at 525-8033 or aharpham@honoluluadvertiser.com.