Tracy Swinton Bailey, PhD, FOREVER FREE: A True Story of Hope in the Fight for Child Literacy

[0:49]Zibby Owens: Hi. This is Zippy Owens and you're listening to the award winning podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. I'm also the host of Moms Don't Have Time to Lose Weight, and I'm the editor of the anthology, which you should run out and buy, called Moms Don't Have Time to A Quarantine Anthology. All proceeds of that book go to COVID nineteen Vaccine Research. And I'm the editor in chief of Moms Don't Have Time to Write, a new publication on Medium, and we're accepting submissions, so please send your personal essays there. And if all that isn't enough, you can follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens, and my website is zibbyowens.com. Okay. Now back to this amazing podcast. Tracy Swinton Bailey is the author of A True Story of Hope in the Fight for Child Literacy. Tracy earned her PhD in education with a specialization in language and literacy at the University of South Carolina in 2013. She began her career as a high school English instructor and went on to found Freedom Readers, an after school and summer literacy program that was designed and implemented to support families in low income areas and assist children in achieving their academic goals and reading. She is married to award winning writer Isaac J. Bailey and is the mother of two children. Welcome, Tracy. Thank you so much for coming on Mom's Home Time to read books to discuss Forever Free, a true story of hope in the fight for Child Literacy. Zivvy, I am super excited to be here. Thank you for this opportunity to talk about the work and to get to know you a little bit better. Oh, thank you. Well, you know, as I mentioned to you over email before we did this, I was just so moved after reading this about all of your pioneering work and how to really tackle child literacy. Not that you're the only one out there. I know so many people are focused on this very, very important sort of fundamental to our society issue. But the way that you've done it and the way you've taken it on yourself and your backstory, all of it is so inspiring.

[2:41]Tracy Swinton Bailey: So I don't know, I was just so moved. So anyway, thanks. Well, thank you for those kind words. I really appreciate it. I mean, when you're working on something like this and you feel like you're doing it a little bit in obscurity, and then when you're doing your writing, it just, it always feels good to know that it connects with someone. So thank you so much for sharing that. Sure. So would you mind telling listeners a little about Forever Free, about freedom readers,

[3:08]Zibby Owens: about how you ended up, you know, in your leadership position of this nonprofit, but also how you ended up making it into a book? So the whole thing. Absolutely.

[3:18]Tracy Swinton Bailey: So Forever Free is a memoir and it's a call to action. And so there are lots of stories in the book about how I fell in love with reading when I was a little girl, mostly because of the way my father nurtured me around books. Read to me every night before I went to bed. He was a person who never had the opportunity to finish high school, but really understood the importance of literacy, reading. He told me that his mom taught him to read before he entered school. So he was very, very focused on making sure that that was something that I enjoyed when I was growing up. So having that background, having that foundation led me through a life of loving books and wanting everybody to understand how important it is to not only learn to read, but to love reading and understand how reading can open doors for us. As an adult, I realized that being a good reader and helping other people read well is a political act. You take a stand in society when you decide to chase after that. I was an English teacher, I loved being in the classroom, but still there I was trying to share that love with young people around books that I hadn't necessarily chosen, books that probably were not my favorite, weren't their favorites. When I had the opportunity to open up the world and let kids choose their own books and practice what they knew about reading from school, then I definitely started to seize that opportunity.

[5:02]Zibby Owens: I thought it was so interesting, by the way, how when you were teaching, you sort of pushed back on your assignment to be as a brand new teacher to teach the most challenged readers, right? The most sort of not impaired, but the the lowest level reading group or the most problematic students. And you were like, I'm a new teacher. Shouldn't I be with the easiest students? Right? They already know what they're doing. Like, why do you put all the new teachers with the hardest students? They should get the best teachers and how you sort of hit up against that wall repeatedly. Tell me a little about that.

[5:32]Tracy Swinton Bailey: Yeah, I mean, when I think about education and I think about the way that teachers are assigned, I absolutely believe that those teachers who have the most experience, who have been recognized for being the most successful with students, those are the teachers that should be paired with the kids that need them the most. But when I walk into classrooms around the country, I rarely see it roll out that way. I kind of see the newer teachers being placed with the kids who need the most instruction. And it just to me didn't seem quite it didn't seem quite fair and it didn't make a whole lot of sense.

[6:09]Zibby Owens: And how great that you did it. I mean, the fact that throughout, like all these examples in your career, like you don't just take it, right? You like push back against all of it. It's great. Know, because like you could easily have just thought that and not said anything or done anything. And then yet you end up, you know, getting to be teaching the higher group at like in the next paragraph, essentially.

[6:33]Tracy Swinton Bailey: Yeah, it does turn out that way. In the moment though, Zibby, I have to tell you that it doesn't always feel like it's great. It feels like a thousand knots in your stomach. It feels like, am I the person to really say this thing, to really bring up this issue? I was told this is the way that things have always been done, but I've always been a questioner. I've always been a person who wanted to know, you know, just because it's always been done this way, does that mean it's the best way for us to continue doing it? So here we are. I've been raising questions like that with regard to like book publishing. I feel like distribution

[7:14]Zibby Owens: and I keep getting that same thing too. But this is how it's done. This is how the whole thing works. I'm like, does it have to? Does it have to be done this way? Like, you know, but nobody wants to hear it. Right? Nobody wants to shake that, I mean, for whatever it is you pick where you see something inefficient or something you can improve, it's not often met with such joy by the people who are instituting that system day in and day out. And that's like what they do. Because I guess if you question it to them, like what does that do to what they do then all day, right? Like it makes them have to question and that's just too much, right? Work and effort and, you know,

[7:50]Tracy Swinton Bailey: soul searching perhaps. So yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's hard. And that was why it made such a difference to me to have the example of Frederick Douglass. I've read a lot of Douglass biographies, read his autobiography, and I just really take a lot of strength from his story because it seemed as if he was a person that was questioning day and night and would not give up. He was relentless. It may not have seemed that way to him, but looking back at what he was able to accomplish in his life, he was one of the single most important people in our country's history, I think, to kind of help our country see what she could be. And as you say, that's why you named your nonprofit Freedom Readers based on Freedom Riders.

[8:37]Zibby Owens: Right. Right. Yeah. Right. And based on the fact that he said, once you learn to read, you are forever free. Hence the name of the book. Yep. There we go. You had a great line. Let me see if I can find it now about helping others and how you said through well, I'll just start over here. These mentors, these books of mine spoke in no uncertain terms about the value system that should guide a life worth living. From an early age, my moral compass was set toward considering the most vulnerable members of the community. Through a confluence of situations and explicit instruction, I internalized a lesson that would shape my entire life. How we treat those with the least power and influence will ultimately define us. Absolutely. Love that. I mean, that's everyone should, we should all like have that be our battle cry and think about how society would function if that were the case.

[9:28]Tracy Swinton Bailey: Right, right. I think it's absolutely, it's so important. And it's the way I was raised. I was just raised in a community where if we had something, our neighbors had it. If my parents grew it in their garden, they made sure to pick an extra bucket and leave it on the front porch of a cousin or a friend. Was just the code that we lived by.

[9:53]Zibby Owens: And we were always looking out for one another. And so that's just the lens with which I viewed my life and my career. By the way, this is probably completely inappropriate to say, but I was talking to someone who mentioned that a university they're involved with was looking for a new university president who had a PhD and this is the other thing. I was like, you should talk to this woman who wrote this book. And they were like, well, why would she's not? They were like, why would an author and I'm like, no, no, she's not an author. She's an educator. Like, she could do it. Anyway, I don't know if you have any interest in running a major university,

[10:24]Tracy Swinton Bailey: but but let me know and I can put you in touch. Oh my goodness, Divi, that it's amazing that you would even say that. I mean, I just really feel like the people who end up in those positions are the people who have been on that track their entire lives. But in some cases, I really feel like in order for us to get to where we need to go, we need to shake that up a little bit. We need to invite some people in with some fresh ideas and some fresh perspectives because I think sometimes tunnel vision. We only see what's right in front of us. So thank you for that nod. I appreciate that.

[11:01]Zibby Owens: You would be interested, right? I'm going to put your name in there. I'm going to see if I can throw your name in the hat. We'll see. Not that I'm so influential, but you know, you know, at least get you on people's radar at this particular place. Anyway, so what was the process of writing this book? Like for you? How did it feel to kind of like go back into your childhood and outline everything you've done and and all of that? Like, did you end up feeling really proud at the end? Or what was it what was it like? Today's episode is sponsored by Quince. Summer always makes me rethink what I'm reaching for every day. Lighter fabrics, better materials, pieces that just feel good the moment you put them on and look effortless. That's why I keep coming back to Quints. They focus on high quality essentials. Think breathable linen, soft organic cotton, washable silk, but without the luxury markup. It's that rare balance where everything feels elevated, but still easy. Quinn says beautiful everyday pieces like 100% European linen pants, dresses, and tops with styles starting at 32. Their denim is soft and easy to wear. I wear my jean jacket all the time. And their organic cotton sweaters are perfect for layering on cool summer nights. Everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. Quince works directly with ethical factories and cuts out the middlemen, so you're paying for quality, not brand markup. And it's not just clothing. Quince has really become a destination for elevated essentials across home, kitchen, bedding, and beyond, making it easy to bring a more premium feel into everyday life. In addition to my jean jacket, I recently got a white tank top dress with a beautiful cotton skirt that is absolutely gorgeous, and I can't wait for it to be warm enough so I can wear it every day, but it has been a cool spring. Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com/zippy for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty five day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's quince.com/zippy for free shipping and three sixty five day returns. Quince.com/zibby.

[13:06]Tracy Swinton Bailey: Well, I'll tell you, Zibby, that I wrote a novel back in 2014. And so my novel, it came as a result of missing my family when I was at Harvard with my husband when he was doing his Nieman fellowship. And so it captured my community and I used a very small publisher. And so I may have had about 500 copies printed. So I was thinking about writing a sequel to that novel and reached out to my husband's publisher. She said, Wait a minute, I read about you and his book, and I know that you're doing some great work. Why don't you think about telling the world about your work? And so that's how we kind of got started on this journey together. I did notice you two had the same publisher. Yeah, absolutely. So I'll forever be grateful to her for making that suggestion. Going back through some of these stories, starting with my childhood, some of it was great, some of it was not so great. There are some moments in there that were some traumatic and scary moments for me, and it was difficult to tell those stories, to put my business in the street, as they say sometimes. But I do believe it's very important for those of us who have a platform to use it to really help other people understand how important it is for us to stand for what's right, to really understand that fighting for the least of these is some of the most important work that we can do. If I can help other people realize that, embrace literacy, get it out into the communities, especially now in this semi post COVID America, you know, then I will have done what I was supposed to do. So explain your way of making literacy,

[14:54]Zibby Owens: childhood literacy, you know, changing how it's taught, how it's like, tell us your approach to doing that and how people listening can help.

[15:05]Tracy Swinton Bailey: Yeah. So our approach is really simple. We try to go to where the kids are. We started out in their communities and it so happened that we started and the housing authority invited us in. And so by going there, I think it says something to families, it says something to children about our commitment to helping them reach their full potential and reach their goals. We also recruit people from our community who love reading and love children. Some of them are attorneys, some are doctors, some are judges, just people that these kids may not have had the opportunity to encounter in another space. And so we develop a program that's about ninety minutes once a week, and we choose a theme for each one of our sessions. A session might be about ten weeks long. And so we start out with a theme song, we look at videos, we have discussions about that particular theme, and then we give the scholar and the tutor forty five minutes to read together from a book the child might choose and from the book a tutor might choose that will help them kind of stretch their reading abilities just a little bit. The end of all of these meetings comes around when a child is given the opportunity to make a speech about something that we ask them to talk about. We teach them about making eye contact and projecting their little voices. And this is where we see the most growth, where we see them really come out of their shells and really practice what they're learning about expressing themselves. They pick up a brand new book on the way home to build their home libraries, and then they come and see us again the next week. So great.

[16:47]Zibby Owens: And you let them keep the books, right? You just Oh, absolutely. They

[16:51]Tracy Swinton Bailey: read to their little brothers, they read to the cat, they read to their Barbie dolls, they read to their parents. And so we're hopeful that they'll take those books and read them every day and just fall in love with being able to satisfy their curiosity,

[17:07]Zibby Owens: being able to travel to different places within the pages of those books. Just yeah, we hope that their lives and their homes are enriched by those books that they take home every week. I was literally just saying that I interviewed earlier this morning Joan Silber and there was part of her novel took place in Bangkok. And I was like, well, you because I've never been there before. So like now you took me there yesterday. You didn't even know, but you did. And now I know what it's like a little more. I got to feel like I experienced some of that just by opening the book. It's such I don't know, such magic. Yeah. It's magic. It really is magic. And that's the kind of thing

[17:41]Tracy Swinton Bailey: that I don't want kids to miss out on because they're standardized tests or because they're worksheets or because somebody feels as if they're not where they need to be. I want them to experience that magic of being transported to a different time and place. I mean, research tells us it's a stress reliever. It can help you sleep better. It's important. Yeah, I will. That is my main stress

[18:07]Zibby Owens: combatant, I guess, or, you know, I don't know what I would do. That's like my the key to my mental health, I think is reading. So the thought that, you know, I know obviously this is such a huge problem, but not being able to have that, it just seems so fundamental, right? Yeah. Such a fundamental skill that everyone should have. So how many communities are you in now? And what's your vision for the for the organization going forward? So we started in two communities in 2010.

[18:36]Tracy Swinton Bailey: And right before we shut down for the pandemic, we were in 20 communities. So right now, we are back up to four and gradually, bit by bit, we're hoping that we'll be able to get back to that number of 20 and beyond. Our vision is to expand as far as possible because as long as there are kids who need books in their hands and need to experience the freedom that comes along with reading, then we'll continue to do the work. We'll continue to keep pushing.

[19:06]Zibby Owens: Where can people, how can people get involved if they are so moved after hearing this? Yeah, they can absolutely reach out to us at our website, which is freedomreaders.org,

[19:15]Tracy Swinton Bailey: and they'll find out more information about what we're doing there and they can contact us and get involved that way. And they can read your book forever free and learn even more. So there we go. Absolutely. I hope you do. And I hope you like it. You have any advice for aspiring authors? My advice for aspiring authors would be keep going, keep writing, keep doing it every day, keep reaching out to the people who are doing what it is that you want to do. Absolutely every day, keep reading, read good writing.

[19:50]Zibby Owens: Yeah, that's my advice. Love it. Yeah. Tracy, thank you. Thank you so much for chatting with me today for all the work you do on behalf of so many people. I mean, I can't even imagine the impact like that. I mean, what you've decided to do with your life and how many people that that's helped. It's so cool. So anyway, thank you. It was a pleasure chatting with you. And now I'm going like send a little email and next thing you know, you'll be running half the country. So there you go.

[20:16]Tracy Swinton Bailey: Well, thank you, Libby. Like I said earlier, I appreciate the vote of confidence. I think I'll stay in my lane for right now, but I really loved getting to talk with you today. Thank you You for the too. Alright. Have a great day. Alright. Bye bye.

[20:29]Zibby Owens: Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens and at moms don't have time to read books. Also, sign up for my newsletter at zibbyowens.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound for the sound editing, and thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and outro music.