'Real Men Read': Library of Congress awards recipient's mission to raise male literacy rates
Education and Curriculum Materials librarian in the David & Lorraine Cheng Library at William Paterson University, Neil Grimes, initiated his program, "Real Men Read," to combat low male literacy rates. As a Ph.D. candidate in the Rutgers School of Communication and Information, Grimes received the Emerging Strategy Award from the United States Library of Congress to propel his project.
Serving as a library liaison to students and faculty, Grimes told The Daily Targum that he aims to foster a meaningful male mentorship program for students in northern New Jersey.
"All the literacy research says boys struggle with the practice and activity of reading," Grimes said.
Emphasizing the need for support and encouragement, Grimes' interest in pursuing "Real Men Read" stems from wanting younger boys to have positive role models and facilitate literacy overall. He was actually inspired by the Chicago Public Schools, which introduced the idea in 2006.
Grimes pointed to the research that says that 9 out of 10 early education teachers are women.
"The research also says that if a student is not reading at grade level by the third grade, their chances of graduating from high school and going on to college are very, very limited," Grimes said. "So, it's like the first 10 years of a child's life basically frame out or serve as the foundation for a child for the rest of their life."
Grimes said that the readings are held every March, intentionally, to align with the Read Across America celebration through the National Education Association. The recruitment process for getting readers takes place from January to February before the school community partnerships coordinator from the William Paterson College of Education designates representatives to partner schools.
His program began in March 2020, the week before quarantine was enforced due to COVID-19. Shifting to a virtual mode of the program, reading representatives were able to read to entire preschools with hundreds of students, finding empowerment in unprecedented times, Grimes said.
The Library of Congress Literacy Awards Committee came up with a new award, the Emerging Strategy Award. To Grimes, receiving this award advanced recognition and gave him a real budget.
For the last five years, he said that this project was solely an addition to his responsibilities, and he was working with zero dollars. Since the launch of Grimes' initiative, participants have read to more than 5,000 students, both virtually and in person.
Grimes said that he intends to grow this program and gain more funding to be able to give books away to students and classes. He wants to encourage other universities and libraries to adopt the initiative and expand the goal of fostering male literacy.
"I actually had the Cherry Hill Public Library pick up on my model and idea and adapt it and bring it to their own community," he said.
He also told the Targum that he wants to expand the representatives involved in the program. Grimes wants to include male sports teams and alumni as readers to get the community to support the act of reading.
"A lot of people only read what they need to or only read what they're required to," Grimes said. "And we kind of need to change that into a culture of lifelong learning and people reading each and every day because I feel like reading is a joyous experience, and sometimes adults forget how much fun it was when we were kids, when we were reading or being read to."
