MERIDIAN – The Mississippi State University-Meridian Education Division recently found out its elementary education majors helped break a world record.

History was made when 2,019,752 children around the world simultaneously experienced the joy of reading with an adult in their life, setting a new world record. Shared reading experiences ranged from an adult and child reading in their home, to teachers reading to students, to large group events with hundreds of people gathering at public facilities for community reading sessions.

For their contribution, MSU-Meridian education majors read Eric Carle’s THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR to students in area public schools as part of Jumpstart’s Read for the Record® program, an international campaign to bring children together with valued grownups in their lives to read the same book, on the same day, in communities

all over the world. The day’s activities were designed to combat the early literacy crisis and raise awareness of Jumpstart’s yearlong programs.

The shared reading campaign is sponsored by Jumpstart, one of America’s fastest growing nonprofit organizations in the field of early childhood education, and The Pearson Foundation, sponsor and founding partner of the campaign who served as the underwriter for the cost of the campaign book and helped organize events nationwide with governors, mayors, school districts, and other community organizations.

Jumpstart’s Read for the Record Campaign and intensive early education programs puts books in the homes of children who need them most and focuses on helping them make gains in crucial language and literacy skills.

“Current research overwhelmingly supports the importance of facilitating early and emerging literacy skills in preschool-age children as a critical foundation for literacy development,” said Dr. George Thomas, professor and chair of the Division of Education at MSU-Meridian. “Jumpstart’s Read for the Record is a positive way to raise awareness about the importance of early childhood literacy skills.”

In partnership with Jumpstart and the Pearson Foundation, the Education Division of Mississippi State University-Meridian supports early childhood education and literacy development and encourages the entire community to learn more about this important campaign by visiting www.readfortherecord.org.