As a child, Linda Mitchell witnessed an unusual ritual between her mother and maternal grandmother. During visits to Mitchell's childhood home, her grandmother would bring her mail.
"I didn't learn that [my grandmother] was illiterate until I was an adult," Mitchell told "St. Louis on the Air." "She could not read, write, add or subtract."
Mitchell went on to graduate with a journalism degree from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1978, and she earned her master's in education there in 2009. It was in graduate school that Mitchell learned another disturbing truth.
"I learned that 67% of our children nationwide were not reading on grade level by the time they were entering fourth grade," Mitchell said. "That was appalling to me, and I wanted to do something about that."
Mitchell's nonprofit, Metro East Literacy Project, promotes literacy in children by gifting books to families for all ages to enjoy.
"It's so important for the child to see their parents reading as well," Mitchell said. "The conventional wisdom, of course, is you read a book to your child at bedtime, and I want parents to do that. But it's also powerful when a child sees you reading because you're building a culture [of]: This is a family that reads. This is what we do."
Her mission to involve parents in the reading process was based on research she conducted during her master's program.
"I formulated the 'Five Pillars of Family Literacy,'" she said. "One of them really jumped out at me, and that was: If kids' families have books in the home, then those children are likely to advance in education compared to a family that has no books. And I said, 'Well, I can do that. I can get books in a home.'"
Since 2012, Mitchell has delivered thousands of books to families in southern Illinois. She said, however, that the Metro East Literacy Project is more than "just handing the family a bag of books." Her nonprofit also provides at-home tutoring for adults and children.
"We follow them along in their literacy journey. … The families I target may not have the disposable income to go and buy a book," she said. "Our motto is 'literacy is liberation.' Anytime a family gets a bag of books … that means they're going to get follow-up messages [and] any type of support they would need."
For more information about Metro East Literacy Project, including Linda Mitchell's "Erudite Nation" and Kitchen Table Tutoring, listen to "St. Louis on the Air" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
"St. Louis on the Air" brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha, Darrious Varner and Alex Heuer. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
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