Muhammad Ali - Reading Advocate - For Reading Addicts

He floated like a butterfly, he stung like a bee; he was ‘The Greatest’ Boxer that ever lived and for a long time he couldn’t read.

Muhammad Ali was a boxing legend, a man larger than life and a man who refused to be beaten by anything, whether it was a boxing opponent, Parkinson’s Syndrome, and even Dyslexia.

Born Cassius Clay on January 7th 1942, Muhammad Ali struggled with reading throughout his school life and almost failed to graduate coming 376th out of 391 pupils.

His wife Lonnie put it best saying “As Muhammad said, ‘I never said I was the smartest, I said I was the greatest,'”

This, along with the discovery that only 45% of young black males will graduate from High School spurred Ali and his wife into action and a decade ago, in 2006 the Alis and Scholastic teamed up to create “Go The Distance,” a series of hand-picked books and magazines designed to educate and inspire young black readers.

From the Scholastic site.
Go The Distance is a ground breaking program of carefully selected titles and teaching resources that help motivate and encourage all students to achieve their personal best. Developed in collaboration with Muhammad and Lonnie Ali, Go the Distance! actively engages students in instruction and develops comprehension skills making reading and learning relevant to their lives.

Designed for Grades 3-8 the program features ‘award-winning, multicultural fiction and nonfiction literature with stories, events, characters, and settings that motivate students to become accomplished readers. Each library helps teachers engage students with text through personally relevant, character building questions, and meaningful dialogue based on Ali’s™ six essential ideas: follow my convictions, build confidence, show determination, give of myself, offer and earn respect, and look for mentors.’

Made up of 96 titles which have been selected with the aid of academic advisors Dr. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm and Dr. Alfred W. Tatum the program’s content has been carefully selected to resonate with pupils.

“All the titles that have been selected were selected to motivate kids to read. To achieve,” Lonnie explains, “And if you motivate them, you can engage them in the act of reading. It will lead to achievement. And then it will lead to empowerment,”