Mobile classroom pulls into Jasper

A giant cow steered its way into Jasper this week to milk the chance to promote family literacy.

The Classroom on Wheels (COW), a bus painted to resemble a holstein cow, pulled up outside the Jasper Municipal Library Monday as an initiative by the Centre for Family Literacy in Edmonton.

Ashima Sumaru, coordinator of the Alberta Prairie COW, said the mobile program, in its fifth year, travels to 60 communities across the province annually to encourage parents to teach  literacy skills to their children. 

“It’s really a bus for parents with kids between zero and six,” Sumaru said. “The early years are when children develop so much, their brains are growing so they really need to interact in those years before they even get to school.”

The seats of the bus have been removed to make room for what looks like a kindergarten classroom, where a facilitator helps parents and children get involved in  activities. 

“It gives parents different ideas about what they can do, so it’s not just about books and writing,” Sumaru said. “We have lots of homemade resources as well just to show parents how easy it is to make things from the grocery flier or from things from around the house.”

The bus is a proactive measure to improve adult literacy rates in the province. An International Adult Literacy and Skill Survey that was completed in 2003 to gauge the literacy level of adults aged 16-65 showed that about 40 per cent of Albertans are at the lowest two levels, Sumaru said.

Someone at a level one literacy rating would have problems reading a prescription label or any kind of complex information, and a level two indicates a person would have difficulty interpreting information that is not clearly laid out. “A level three is needed to function in society,” Sumaru said.

To help address this, every community the COW bus visits receives what’s called a legacy library, or a donation of 50 new books.  “We donate 50 brand new books to each community we visit, that’s our legacy to a community,” Sumaru said. 

Mayor Richard Ireland accepted the books on behalf of the town at a presentation attended by councillors as well as director of Community and Family services Kathleen Waxer, and Lee Ann Cross, Parent Link programmer for Jasper. 

Cross said half of the donation would go to the municipal library, and half to Community Outreach Services. Park Link, a province-wide program that gives parents and children a place to come together, funded the COW’s visit to Jasper. “It’s a fun way to spend time with your kids,” Cross said.

Drop-in sessions were available while the bus was in town as well as a family literacy workshop Monday evening. On Tuesday, children from the daycare and kindergarten classes visited the COW, when it was parked outside the Activity Centre.

Angie Thom, children and youth programmer for the municipal library, said what literacy comes down to is communication. “Literacy involves any type of information processing,” she said. “It can be anything from reading to numeracy, math skills, computer skills, even music can all be found as types of literacy.”

Thom said people who don’t pick up literacy skills can suffer a diminished quality of life. “Especially with the younger ages the sooner the better,” she said. “It’s one of those skills that improves with practice.”