Opinion: What Dolly Parton Taught Us About Early Literacy

Dolly Parton left behind an extraordinary body of music, storytelling and philanthropy. Yet for those of us who work in literacy, her most consequential legacy is the millions of books that arrived at children’s homes through the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.

She created the program in 1995, inspired in part by her father, who could not read or write. What began as an effort to put books into the hands of children in her Tennessee community became an international program that has distributed millions of free books.

Her idea was simple: introduce youngsters to good books. But its simplicity should not obscure its significance. A book in a child’s mailbox is more than a book. It can become a conversation between parent and child, a bedtime ritual, a story read repeatedly. It can open hearts and minds and change a child’s understanding of what books and reading are for.

That distinction has shaped my life and work. As a professor at the Warner School of Education and Human Development at the University of Rochester, where I focus on reading and literacy, I have spent my career thinking about how children learn to read. Through my work with Rochester children and families — including ROC Reading Partners, Project READ and other literacy initiatives — I have also learned that teaching reading is only part of the work.

Helping children grow up to love books and enjoy reading is equally important. 

I have watched reluctant readers become increasingly enthusiastic when they are given meaningful choices about what they read. I have seen confidence grow as their skills develop, and I have seen the joy that comes when children find books that reflect their own lives, questions, and experiences. Those moments remind me that motivation and joy are part of how literacy grows.

Our public conversation about reading can become overly focused on scores, reading levels and achievement gaps. Those measures matter. Children deserve excellent reading instruction, and schools must be accountable for providing it. However, a reading score cannot tell whether a child thinks of books as something they want to return to — or whether reading has become a source of curiosity rather than simply another school task. A child can learn how to read without yet knowing why reading matters. 

Literacy is foundational because it gives children access to knowledge, information and opportunities in a world increasingly saturated with text. Reading also gives children something less easily measured: language to express their experiences and access to worlds beyond their own. Books can help children recognize themselves, encounter people unlike themselves, ask better questions and imagine new possibilities.

That is why access to books is not a sentimental issue. It is an issue of opportunity.

It’s distressing that legislators in four states — Indiana, Missouri, Maine and Washington — are looking to cut public funding for Parton’s program.

For those who work in literacy, the lesson Parton imparted with her program is both simple and demanding. We need strong reading instruction, skilled teachers, accessible libraries and community programs that reach families where they are. But we also need to create the conditions in which children can discover the pleasure of reading and recognize themselves as readers. The goal is not simply to produce children who can read. It is to help children become readers. 

Parton gave millions of children a place to begin that journey. Our responsibility is to ensure every child discovers the gifts of becoming a reader.