At Books@Work, we know that our participants are committed to learning and personal growth. This program exists to encourage and support individuals and communities as they engage with reading, conversation, and collaboration. Without the active engagement of our participants, Books@Work would not be possible.
We are pleased to announce the Books@Work Badge, a digital representation of that journey. Using Mozilla’s Open Badge system, the Books@Work Badge is both a testimony to participant learning as well as a credential that individuals can take with them as they move forward in their careers and communities.
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We are pleased to release our 2013 Social Impact Report, detailing our progress from our inception to December 31, 2013. During that time, we served 230 participants in 17 programs in five companies, partnering with professors from six colleges in four states. As we release the report, our numbers have already increased steadily on all dimensions, and the stories we hear from participants, professors and employers continue to assure us that we are on the right track. As we strive to scale our program and our impact, we pause to appreciate the support we have received from our donors and our partners. Thank you.
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Research shows that sharing books with children helps them learn about peer relationships, coping strategies, building self-esteem and general world knowledge. Our new Deputy Director, Jamie Simoneau, reflects on these ideas as she shares her own excitement about sharing her passion for reading with her young son.
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Athletic victories do not come easily, as we all know. Performing requires countless hours of practice, conditioning, and hard work. In his 1854 Walden, Henry David Thoreau made an impassioned plea for what we might call the athletic reading of challenging books. For many people, Thoreau is remembered as the lone cabin-dweller enjoying direct contact with nature. If we remember Thoreau only for his ecological consciousness, however, we miss one of the most compelling defenses of active literacy in American literature.
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We have a societal narrative that says that busy, working people have no interest in high quality literature, or in challenging themselves to explore complex texts. This narrative permeates the current national dialogue on education as a means to get a job rather than learning to become a better learner (and a better worker). It fuels the humanities “crisis” about which we read so much. Underlying these messages is the insidious belief that the liberal arts – literature, the arts, history and culture, the natural and the social sciences – belong not to the working classes but somehow to the leisure class and the leisure class alone, as if critical thinking, communication, intellectual debate and skills of analysis, resilience and reinvention should be rationed or parceled out to a narrow few.
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“Likes” and “dislikes” are the currency of our digital world. But is “liking” a book a relevant question? Is it possible to gain meaning and value from a book that you do not like? Is there a better way to evaluate the impact of a book or a story?
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The Heart of the Matter, published last year by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, makes the case that the humanities and social sciences are essential for civic society, innovation, and life in a globalized world. The humanities and social sciences are, in the report’s own words, “the keeper of the republic.” At Books@Work we are bringing these ideas to life everyday.
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Happy New Year from all of us at Books@Work. As we close the books on 2013, I cannot help but reflect back on the prior year. Nothing has occupied my thoughts and energies more this past year than Books@Work. 2013 was intended to prove that the program works in multiple industries, with diverse participants and a wide array of reading materials. And prove it we did! As we embark on 2014, we are all excited to take the program to the next level.
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Since this is the season for gifts and giving, our latest installment of a Text at Work is O. Henry’s famous holiday tale “The Gift of the Magi.” O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), a popular American short story writer. The prestigious O. Henry Award bears his name, and is granted every year for excellent short fiction. A Text at Work is a Books@Work “teaser” – a chance to experience a reading and a set of questions to spur discussion. Read it on your own, or share it with a friend. But please don’t forget to come back and comment!
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