State's first lady reads to Gainesville second graders

GAINESVILLE - Georgia’s First Lady Sandra Deal, a Hall County native and former teacher, visited Gainesville Elementary School as part of her “Read Across Georgia” initiative Thursday morning.

Read Across Georgia supports Gov. Nathan Deal’s goal of increasing the percentage of children reading at grade level by the completion of third grade.

“If they’re not reading by third grade which is sort of the polishing year, when you polish your skills, then when you start into the content areas they just don’t understand the material, they can’t read it well enough to understand it,” she said.

The First Lady said that leads to bad habits, which include skipping school or even cheating. By the time unskilled readings students reach middle school, they begin to drop out. She said mentoring is also stressed in Read Across Georgia. Mrs. Deal has talked to retired teachers about coming back and helping with mentoring programs.  CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM ACCESS NORTH GEORGIA