Entertainment

The Reading Capital Of The World?

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 3, 2001 / 6:14 PM EST / CBS

In rural South Georgia — where cotton is still king and the land still provides a living — a new generation has discovered a new love: reading.

Some parents say it's a miracle, especially in a place like Tifton, Ga. With a population of 15,000, Tifton is a place, many felt, that progress had passed by. With a 40 percent high school drop-out rate, companies wouldn't relocate to Tifton because they couldn't find qualified workers, CBS News Correspondent Byron Pitts reports.

"They couldn't read well enough to follow a recipe, to fill out a job application," school librarian Terri Nalls said.

So Nalls had an idea.

'I wanted these kids to love to read, to be able to go into a business and feel good about themselves," she said.

Now every Thursday night, the town library is packed with children in kindergarten through 12th grade — and their parents — reading books. They all take a test on computer that measures comprehension. Pass the test to prove you read the book and you win a prize.

"It doesn't matter that we're from South Georgia, rural Georgia. We've got the same edge that anybody else does because our kids are excited about reading," said Lamara Moore, a parent.

They're excited and excelling. Test scores are up, and at a recent ceremony held at the high school stadium, Tifton made claim to being "The Reading Capital of the World." More than a million books have been read cover-to-cover since the program began four years ago.

"We've got a further way to go and we think we've gone from the back of the pack to leading the pack," said Mike Brumby of the Tifton Co. Foundation.

It's a mark of success, measured mostly one child at a time.