Philosophy
"The power of books is inestimable. Reading remains one of the skills that helps connect us to our world and the worlds of others."
"I understand that many children are not exposed to classic and complex literature, nor given the opportunity to start a connection to books early in life. Our technologically dependent world doesn't stress reading, and the books we often tout are the most common, most commercial or most politically correct texts. It has been obvious to me that a lack of reading skills divides children very early on into those who will succeed and those who are less likely to find success."
"By envisioning each book as being the center of a universe, and then creating galaxies around that central text, Cool Classics! will strive to show public elementary school children the importance of literature, illustrating how each book resonates with and connects to larger worlds. The ultimate goal is to transform students into devoted readers and thinkers. I am convinced that by keeping the focus on classic literature, and creating an intimate connection for the students to words and books, we will transport them to alternate worlds while creating confident readers and thinkers who will contribute to our society in the most significant ways."
"The pedagogy was also important. We're in a society that has dumbed things down way too much. I think the potential for intelligence is so great, and we turn our backs on it too often, so I didn't do that with these children. We taught the concept of narrative to four- and five-year-olds. I'm not going to tell you that everyone can stand up and recite it, but they have a darn good grasp of it. We talked about illustrations, and illustrators. We did sentences. We analyzed the story. We didn't do it in boring ways, and it was different because it was an after−school program, but the idea was to mix experiencing different forms of art with art projects, learning Spanish and Flamenco dancing, eating snacks, going to the public library, a bookstore and the zoo, with learning what a story is, learning what a character is, learning vocabulary words. While it’s not really a literacy program, I believe that students will read better as a result, and I believe that their test scores will be better. Cool Classics! is really meant to teach children to think, and to understand that the world is a complicated place, using this wonderful book that has all these different ways in which it operates. It can be a play. It can be a musical. It can be a classical music concert. It can be a conversation. It can be popular in Poland. It can be banned by the Nazis. It can have a Spanish version. It can be a Disney movie. It can look completely different, but it always has the same values, and concept, and story, and we can talk about it, and think about it in different ways. Discussion was a huge part of this." – Mara Tapp, Cool Classics! Creator and Director