In Iowa, Read a Book, Get a Stylish Haircut

The Christian Science Monitor wrote of this unique approach to encourage young people to read.

During the event, St. Mark Youth Enrichment organization gave away books, and Caitlin Daniels, grade-level reading coordinator with the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, helped struggling readers in the barber chair.

“It’s great. All the kids, they want to have a good haircut to go back to school,” she said. “They’re paying through reading.”

The digital world distracts and drains the focus for books. Getting children and students to read anything has been a struggle.

Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization in San Francisco, released research last year that indicates the daily reading drops from childhood to teenage years. According to the study, the percentage of 6- to 8-year-old daily readers dropped from 38 percent to 24 percent when children reach age 15- to 17-years old..

In 1984, 70 percent of 13-year-olds and 64 percent of 17-year-olds were weekly readers, but by 2014 the percentages had dropped to 53 percent and 40 percent, respectively, according to the report.

Read the story here.

Reading not only educates you, but in Iowa, you come away with style, too.