The Reading for Our Lives Campaign launched in Milwaukee last month—not with a lecture about my book, but with an invitation for reflection and action.
Guests at the campaign launch explored the roots of our community’s literacy challenges, potential solutions, and their own roles in creating change.
My favorite prompt posed a powerful question to the group:
If you had $1 million to help more Milwaukee children learn to read, where would you invest it?
Participants had to choose just one option:
- High-quality teacher training
- Literacy coaches in every district
- Parent coaching or home-visiting programs
- One-on-one tutoring
- Literacy training for all family-facing professionals
- Free books for every child, every year
Each option had merit, but each reflected a different theory of change—who benefits, how to deliver support, and when results appear.
If I were choosing, I’d be tempted to fund a team of exceptional tutors. Strong one-on-one instruction can improve reading prospects dramatically. But tutoring is a rescue mission—helping children already behind, not preventing reading failure in the first place.
At the event, the clear favorite was parent coaching and home-visiting programs—a recognition that reading success begins long before kindergarten. Teacher training and professional literacy development followed.
I loved seeing that focus on prevention—on reaching parents of babies and toddlers who can shape the brain architecture and language foundation that reading depends on. When we act early, we reduce the need for costly remediation later and free up resources for the few who still need intensive support.
That’s the heart of this campaign: to shift attention and resources to seeding literacy success from birth. Every dollar invested early multiplies in impact, strengthening families, schools, and our nation’s future.
As Dan Heath writes in Upstream, “We celebrate the response, the recovery, the rescue. But we’re capable of greater things: less Undo and more Outdo.”Join us in investing early—for lasting change. Your gift helps more families lay the foundation for lifelong reading success.
