The Maine Humanities Council Annual Report — 2004

Programs

People who are first learning to read often find the process frustrating. Many experience dismissive attitudes from friends and families, which sometimes persuades them to give up. Through reading and discussion groups facilitated by a scholar, New Books, New Readers encourages adults at low literacy levels to love reading. For many, New Books, New Readers books (which the participants keep) are the first books they have ever read all the way through.

Colin Windhorst leads New Books, New Readers programs in Houlton at the Adult Learning Center and the Aroostook County Jail. Preparing for the unexpected is part of the job. A quiet discussion about simple topics can turn into a complex one when issues are close to the participants’ hearts. Colin relates, “One mother, who attended every session faithfully [in the “Home” series], spoke up about her son, who is a teenager currently in a foster home,a very awkward and unpleasant subject for her to talk about. It illustrates how the ebb and flow of discussion carries us from seemingly minor topics to matters of profound significance.”

Stories for Life began as a partnership between the Maine Humanities Council and the Maine Department of Corrections. Seeing how well this short-story program worked with people who had had few opportunities to discuss the ideas generated by a reading, the Council expanded the program in 2004 to serve mental health clients. Stories for Life provides an opportunity for participants to become connected with new perspectives, new ideas, and the power of group discussion.

For the past three years, Bud Hall, probation officer, has coordinated the Stories for Life program at the Probation Office in Hallowell. Many of the probationers with whom Bud worked had limited social skills and were very insecure in group settings. He liked how the facilitator of Stories for Life groups carefully coached participants until “they began to develop confidence to express ideas, in a group setting, and to accept and participate in evaluative discussions of those ideas.”

The Maine Humanities Council, in partnership with the Maine State Library, supports libraries statewide with Let’s Talk About It, a free, theme-based, book discussion program led by a scholar/facilitator. Let’s Talk About It brings people together around books for reflection and discussion, relieving the isolation of long winters in Maine’s most rural areas, and bringing members of the community together to share ideas.

Karen Chandler, director at the Shaw Public Library in Greenville, works with a year-round population of just over 1,600 with 4,500 additional summer residents. Like many of Maine’s seasonal communities, tension arises between locals and seasonal residents, and programs like Let’s Talk About It help them find common ground. “The books are the basis of our meetings, “ Karen says, “but we never go away without shared personal experiences from all of our lives, whether from Maine or away.”

The Maine Humanities Council’s professional development programs for K-12 educators provide content-rich “back to college” experiences ranging from conferences and seminars to multi-year programs that meet at Maine college and university campuses. Programs offer a collegial atmosphere, informal exchanges with scholars, extensive background reading, and lively discussion.

Bill Murphy, an English teacher who practices innovative, cross-disciplinary teaching at Belfast Area High School, is currently enrolled in “Longfellow and the Forging of American Identity,” a three-year program.“One of the ways I teach American studies is through the classic microcosm — such as the prison, the factory, the ship — and a work of Longfellow’s like ‘The Building of the Ship’ fits in perfectly,” Bill says. And Longfellow is “one of us,” Murphy adds. “Kids respond with local pride when he is taught as part of Maine’s heritage.”

Even before they are able to read, children can enjoy books. Children look at books, listen to them, handle them, play with them, and even chew on them. An early introduction to books will increase a child’s future reading and social skills. Born to Read recognizes the importance of helping children love books and focuses on helping the adults who care for children engage their young charges with the ideas that emerge from reading to them. Born to Read does this through its four key programs.

• A partnership with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Nutrition Program brings nutrition aides to the state’s most needy families. These aides also provide each family with children’s books and model reading aloud.
• The Volunteer Reader program trains volunteers, who visit childcare sites once a week to read aloud and engage children in literacy-related activities.
• Children’s Literature Seminars for childcare providers generate a rich exchange of ideas and strategies for sharing stories with children.
• “Many Eyes, Many Voices,” a literature based, anti-bias curriculum teaches childcare providers, preschool teachers, and parents how to inspire meaningful conversation with children about difference.

Kristen Tedesco reading with Morgan

Kristen Tedesco works at the East End Children’s Workshop in Portland as lead teacher in a classroom of seventeen preschoolers. Seven are English language learners; over half have diagnosed special needs or mental health concerns.

In 2004, Kristen took a Many Eyes, Many Voices training. Discussing children’s literature with other caregivers made her realize that “even picture books mean different things to different people.” Classic books about Maine, for example, are difficult for Kristen’s group since “some of them have never picked berries or seen a stream running over rocks.” The training helped her choose books that will “give kids an opportunity to see themselves reflected in stories, to say ‘remember when I got angry like that?’ or ‘that house looks like the house where I lived in Africa.’”

The relationship between patients and health care professionals is a complicated one. Fundamentals of medical care can overshadow a provider’s awareness that patients need to be understood in the context of their lives, their families, and their values. Literature & Medicine seeks to establish a culture of connection among health care professionals — physicians, nurses, administrative staff, midwives, hospice workers, chaplains, trustees — and patients. Through readings and thoughtful discussions, the program helps health care professionals consider human issues in a health care setting.

Kate Cohen has been in nursing since 1971 and for the past six years has been an R.N. for the mental health unit of Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford. Even before she joined SMMC’s Literature & Medicine program, Kate was notorious for spending her breaks bent over a book.

Literature & Medicine has since convinced her that the shared reading experience has a power all its own. Reflecting on stories in the company of her colleagues allows her to deepen her own understanding. For example, coworkers have reminded her that “the person whom I see as an inpatient in crisis also exists as a citizen in the greater community. My colleagues’ broader view of patients’ lives — their skills and experiences — has enriched my own understanding of these patients.”

Across the U.S., the Maine Humanities Council’s innovative program has been making a difference. Thanks to special funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2004, eight partnering states from all regions of the country adopted the Council’s program model with technical support form the MHC office. In total, this project served 41 sites nationwide.