… Driven by a passion for reading“I tell them (parents) that reading is the foundation for all the subjects that they want their children to work hard on. I tell them that if you can read, you can learn your social studies… it’s the same with other subjects…you give yourself a gift when you learn to read.”By Michael JordanShe stood tall and she had a certain unconscious elegance,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, and I had to ask twice to make sure that I’d gotten her age right. But yes, Mrs. Pearl James really was 82 years old; a retired teacher who hasn’t really ‘retired’ at all.And her greatest achievement may be out of the formal classroom, in her quest to ensure that in this age of television, mobile phones and computers, the love of books and reading still endures in children.Mrs. James is the founder of the Kuru Kururu Book Club, which she founded some 25 years ago.She has taught one generation of children to develop a love for reading, and she is now passing on this same passion to the offspring of the children she taught a generation ago.“Teaching is my life,” she says. “And what I teach particularly is reading.”She was born on June 19, 1928 in Georgetown to parents Clarence and Edna Walcott, the third of 14 children—nine boys and five girls—-and spent her early years in a house in Charlotte Street.Her father was a cabinet maker, while her mother was a housewife.Back then, there was no distraction of television and the internet. In fact, there was no electricity at all in the Walcott residence. But there were books, and little Pearl Walcott was an avid reader.“My parents accused me of reading when I should be working. We had kerosene lamps, and my mother used to complain of us using up her kerosene (while reading).”Her early schooling was at Bourda Roman Catholic, the St. Thomas More Roman Catholic,Wholesale China Jerseys, and she later attended the Standard High School, which was in Robb Street near the Metropole Cinema. That was run by a Mr. W. Hoppie,Bobby Doerr Jersey, who Mrs. James described as one of her favourite teachers.And she knew exactly what her career would be after leaving school.While other females her age were taking shorthand and typing to qualify for secretarial work and careers in the public service, she set her sights on becoming a teacher.Mrs. Pearl JamesAt the age of 18, she began teaching at Agricola Methodist, before moving on to Trinity Methodist.Tragedy struck the family when she was 20. Her mother passed away and the young teacher had to shoulder the responsibility of taking care of her younger siblings. She recalled reading to them often.She then taught at Kitty Methodist, remaining there for eight years before migrating to the United States in 1958. By then, she had become Mrs. Pearl James, having wed Mr. Clarence James, whom she met in Bartica.To teach in the US, she had to further her education.“Our teaching standards (in then British Guiana) were high back then,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, but to teach in the US you have to get your degree. I had to get my Teacher’s Certificate.”She was able to do this after enrolling in Cleveland State University.Her teaching experience in Guyana served her well.“I did not find it challenging. I had been teaching for eight years at a high level. Nine- to ten-year-olds were always my favourite age for teaching.“The children in the States always had access to information, even before computers. I encouraged children to read, and I had a lot of praise from parents who said that I had turned their kids on to reading.”She taught in Cleveland, Ohio, and remained overseas for 20 years before returning to Guyana in 1978.Many parents of the children whom she had “turned on to reading” were upset at her departure. Some made her a promise to pass on this love of books to Guyanese children when she returned to her homeland.“The parents were very unhappy when I was leaving, and they said ‘Mrs. James, you should really continue to work with children.’”It’s a promise that she has continued to keep.After returning to Guyana, Mrs. James taught at the Mission School in Prashad Nagar. When she left that school she was close to 55, the age of retirement, and opted to retire. It was around then that the family, which included three daughters) moved to Kuru Kururu.And while she had ‘retired’ from formal teaching, the urge to teach remained. Back then, the small community off the Soesdyke/Linden highway to which she had moved had no library.Mrs. James had brought back several children’s books from her long overseas tenure. She decided to start a library for small children. It was then that she discovered a somewhat disturbing thing: Several of the children could not read.“Many