A Letter From the Publisher

By Richard B. Thomas

Most of us at TIME think we have a unique relationship with our readers, but we feel a special bond with participants in a pilot program in remedial reading called Time to Read. These students, both adults and children, are being tutored by Time Inc. staffers who use as the primary text.

When Time Inc. decided in early 1984 to attempt to combat rising illiteracy in America, recalls Toni Fay, director of corporate community relations, "Our ^ research indicated that there was a lack of high-interest materials. We thought we could motivate students to read through a careful use of TIME." Ester Connelly, who manages the Time Education Program in Yardley, Pa., was charged with devising a curriculum outline and one-day training course that would enable volunteers to teach reading and vocabulary through use of the magazine's advertisements, headlines and captions, as well as its articles.

The program was launched in New York City in March 1985, with students at Public School 204 in the borough of Queens. Twice as many tutors as were needed volunteered. Among them was Joan Walsh, chief of TIME Letters department. A former schoolteacher, she gives the program high marks: "Time Inc. gave us a place to work and brought the kids here, which helped us use the time productively. Now that school is out, my student wrote me that she had got a library card and planned to read many books over the summer."

Other divisions and subsidiaries around the country became involved in the program. Volunteers from Book-of-the-Month Club worked with inmates of the Camp Hill State Correction Institution in Camp Hill, Pa. Retired employees from the Time Inc. Information Systems group tutored adults at the Chicago Public Library. ATC Cablevision employees worked to improve the reading skills of city workers in Charlotte, N.C., and of adults in Orlando, and Southern Progress magazines "adopted" Lewis Elementary School in Birmingham.

Ralph Davidson, chairman of Time Inc., observes that the Time to Read program shows the company's commitment to the communities where its employees live and work. He notes, "This says something about voluntarism in the '80s, that a certain kind of work will get done only if we in the corporate community pitch in and help." He is not the only one who thinks that way. Two months ago, Ronald Reagan lauded Time Inc.'s work with a President's Volunteer Action Award Citation.