Reading aloud day: Wüst reads to schoolchildren from the "House of Animals"
North Rhine-Westphalia's Minister President Hendrik Wüst (CDU) took part in the nationwide Read Aloud Day at an elementary school for special needs on Friday. He chose "Zimmer frei im Haus der Tiere" by the German-Israeli author Leah Goldberg.
The children at the Michael Ende School were enthusiastic and then read to Wüst themselves. He likes to read to his daughter Philippa (2) in between, said the Minister President. The book "Nick and the little whale" is very popular with the Wüsts at home.
Henning Krautmacher, the former frontman of the Cologne band Höhner, who has been involved in reading aloud in schools for many years, was also present. "When I was a little boy, I was always read to by my parents and grandparents," emphasized the 66-year-old. "That has had a positive influence on my entire life."
Many other cabinet members were on the move throughout the state. Children and Family Minister Josefine Paul (Greens) visited a kindergarten in Essen. Economics Minister Mona Neubaur (Greens) made time for the children at a comprehensive school in Düsseldorf. Education Minister Dorothee Feller (CDU) was active at two schools in NRW - in Münster and Dorsten. "Anyone who opens the pages of a book has the opportunity to discover new, fantastic worlds," she said.
The nationwide Read Aloud Day, an initiative of the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit", the Reading Foundation in Mainz and the Deutsche Bahn Foundation, was first launched in 2004. In the run-up to the 20th Reading Aloud Day in Germany, the organizers once again expected more than one million readers and listeners to take part nationwide.
Recently, the IQB education trend showed that a quarter of primary school pupils in North Rhine-Westphalia do not meet the minimum requirements for reading, writing and arithmetic.
Wüst advocates for the importance of literature in education, highlighting his daughter's love for the book "Nick and the little whale." He believes that reading aloud to children can have a positive impact, as he experienced himself as a child, having been read to by his parents and grandparents. Due to the statistics revealing that a quarter of primary school pupils in North Rhine-Westphalia do not meet the minimum reading requirements, kindergartens and schools across the state have devoted special attention to literacy initiatives, such as the nationwide Read Aloud Day, which encourages people to spend time reading to children.
Source: www.dpa.com
