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"As a community, we have come to the understanding that you have to start early. Five years ago, only 50% of kids in New Haven that went to kindergarten had early childhood services or experiences. We have that up to 75% and will move it up to 90% in the next three years."
John Destefano, Jr., Mayor of New Haven
"We are at a point in this country where we have to redefine the term learning and call the question about who learns, when they learn, where they learn, why they learn and how they learn. The answers libraries bring to these questions are answers we really need to hear in this country."
Karen Pittman, Executive Director, Forum for Youth Involvement
"People sometimes say, "BORING! Why isn’t there a new initiative this year?" Well, we haven’t finished working on last year’s initiative and we don’t have all the kids where they need to be. We haven’t made refinements based on what we’ve learned, what strategies are working what strategies are not. There is a lot of room for us to move in a positive direction. There’s a lot of room for us to make sure we keep the focus on children, on teaching and learning, evaluating ourselves and holding ourselves accountable, and continuous progress. Now they’ve finally figured out that we’re serious about this agenda. It can be done. Stay focused. Stay collaborative."
Tom Payzant, Supt., Boston Public Schools
"We’ve started addressing the digital divide. Five years ago, we had one computer for 68 kids. None of our buildings had networks and only a few of our teachers were using technology in the classroom. Today, we have one computer for every four kids in the Boston Public School System. Every single school has been networked and over 80% of our teachers have received at least 50 hours of training and are using technology in our classrooms."
Thomas M. Menino, Mayor of Boston
"We are a major resettlement community – we have Croatians, Somalis, Tibetans, the second-fastest growing Hispanic population and the fourth-largest Pacific Islander population. Our major objective in these youth programs is to bring kids together, creating opportunities and experiences for all kids and building an appreciation for diversity. It takes personal relationships, getting together and getting to know one another, to cut through the course of bigotry and misunderstanding."
Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson, Mayor, Salt Lake City
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[Left to right]: Salt Lake City Public Library Trustees Byron Russell and Diane Etherington, Mayor Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson, Library Director Nancy Tessman, and Director of Youth Programs, Janet Wolf. |
