Sara Medalan is a teacher in North Dakota, who clearly cares a lot for her student's education.
The educator has set up a before-school salon called ‘Books & Braids’ in her classroom, inviting students to practice their reading skills while getting their hair done.
Sara, who is aware of the United States’ poor literacy record, wanted to make a difference, and when a little girl came to school one day with her hair ‘everywhere’, the teacher was inspired.
Taking to braid the young girl’s hair while she read at book club, the youngster came back the next day asking Sara to do her hair again because she enjoyed the process.
In turn, this sparked Sara to set-up the now beloved, ‘Books & Braids’ – a safe and quiet environment so that children can learn the value of reading while receiving one on one teaching from an adult.
While Sara combs and styles the girls' hair, the kids pay for their hair-dos by reading to Sara while waiting and thanking their teacher when they’re finished.
Sara says the job fills her up with love just as much as the kids and has high hopes for the initiative: "[I'm] envisioning schools across America opening Books & Braids salons."
A friend of the teacher, Kelly Boswell, took to Facebook to share an image of Books & Braids in full swing, revealing:
“The child walks away with a brand new comb, a fancy new hairstyle, and some personal attention from a loving adult.”
But she also poses the question: “How could we provide something similar for boys?”
As we know, there are several barbershops in New York City which have set up cultural reading corner's for young boys called Barbershop Books.
But have you any fun ideas you can add to help boys read at school more often?
