How to inspire every child to be a lifelong reader

As an elementary school teacher,

my mom did everything she could
to ensure I had good reading skills.

This usually consisted of weekend
reading lessons at our kitchen table

while my friends played outside.

My reading ability improved,

but these forced reading lessons
didn't exactly inspire a love of reading.

High school changed everything.

In 10th grade, my regular English class
read short stories and did spelling tests.

Out of sheer boredom, I asked
to be switched into another class.

The next semester,
I joined advanced English.

(Laughter)

We read two novels and wrote
two book reports that semester.

The drastic difference and rigor
between these two English classes

angered me and spurred questions like,

"Where did all these
white people come from?"

(Laughter)

My high school was always
70 percent black and Latino

but this advanced English class
had white students everywhere.

This personal encounter
with institutionalized racism

altered my relationship
with reading forever.

I learned that I couldn't depend
on a school, a teacher or curriculum

to teach me what I needed to know.

And more out of like, rebellion,
than being intellectual,

I decided I would no longer allow
other people to dictate

when and what I read.

And without realizing it,
I had stumbled upon a key

to helping children read.

Identity.

Instead of fixating on skills

and moving students
from one reading level to another,

or forcing struggling readers
to memorize lists of unfamiliar words,

we should be asking ourselves
this question:

How can we inspire children
to identify as readers?

D'shon, a brilliant first-grader
I taught in the Bronx,

he helped me understand
how identity shapes learning.

One day during math,
I walk up to D'shon and I say,

"D'shon, you're a great mathematician."

He looks at me and responds,

"I'm not a mathematician,
I'm a math genius!"

(Laughter)

OK D'shon, right?

Reading?

Completely different story.

"Mr. Irby, I can't read.

I'm never going to learn
to read," he would say.

I taught D'shon to read,

but there are countless black boys
who remain trapped in illiteracy.

According to the US
Department of Education,

more than 85 percent
of black male fourth graders

are not proficient in reading.

85 percent!

The more challenges
to reading children face,

the more culturally competent
educators need to be.

Moonlighting as a stand-up comedian
for the past eight years,

I understand the importance
of cultural competency.

Which I define as the ability to translate

what you want someone else
to know or be able to do

into communication or experiences
that they find relevant and engaging.

Before going on stage,
I assess an audience.

Are they white, are they Latino?

Are they old, young,
professional, conservative?

Then I curate and modify my jokes

based on what I think
would generate the most laughter.

While performing in a church,
I could tell bar jokes.

But that might not result in laughter.

(Laughter)

As a society, we're creating
reading experiences for children

that are the equivalent
of telling bar jokes in a church.

And then we wonder
why so many children don't read.

Educator and philosopher Paulo Freire

believed that teaching and learning
should be two-way.

Students shouldn't be viewed
as empty buckets to be filled with facts,

but as cocreators of knowledge.

Cookie-cutter curriculums
and school policies

that require students to sit statue-still

or to work in complete silence --

these environments often exclude
the individual learning needs,

the interest and expertise of children.

Especially black boys.

Many of the children's books
promoted to black boys

focus on serious topics, like slavery,
civil rights and biographies.

Less than two percent of teachers
in the United States are black males.

And a majority of black boys
are raised by single mothers.

There are literally young black boys
who have never seen a black man reading.

Or never had a black man
encourage him to read.

What cultural factors,
what social cues are present

that would lead
a young black boy to conclude

that reading is even
something he should do?

This is why I created Barbershop Books.

It's a literacy nonprofit

that creates child-friendly
reading spaces in barber shops.

The mission is simple:

to help young black boys
identify as readers.

Lots of black boys go to the barber shop
once or twice a month.

Some see their barbers
more than they see their fathers.

Barbershop Books connect reading
to a male-centered space

and involves black men
and boys' early reading experiences.

This identity-based reading program

uses a curated list of children's books
recommended by black boys.

These are the books
that they actually want to read.

Scholastic's 2016 Kids and Family Report

found that the number one thing
children look for when choosing a book

is a book that will make them laugh.

So if we're serious about helping
black boys and other children to read

when it's not required,

we need to incorporate
relevant male reading models

into early literacy.

In exchange, some of the children's books
that adults love so much

for funny, silly or even gross books,
like "Gross Greg".

(Laughter)

"You call them boogers.
Greg calls them delicious little sugars."

(Laughter)

That laugh, that positive reaction

or gross reaction some of you just had,

(Laughter)

black boys deserve
and desperately need more of that.

Dismantling the savage inequalities
that plague American education

requires us to create reading experiences

that inspire all children
to say three words:

I'm a reader.

Thank you.

(Applause)