Times may have changed, but LeVar Burton’s message has not

As part of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s annual Geek Week and Distinguished Lecture Series, LeVar Burton spoke to a diverse crowd of roughly 700 people Wednesday evening to show, through examples of his own work, that the power of storytelling can be used as a powerful teaching tool.

Burton is known for a varied acting profile that includes the roles of Kunta Kinte from the ABC miniseries Roots, Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation and perhaps most well known as the Host of the long-running children’s television series Reading Rainbow.

“I believe that literacy is a birthright,” said Burton.

After a warm welcome to the stage, Burton spoke about the importance of literacy and how being literate would lead one to success as a learner. He showed graphics that displayed education as a solution to a math problem in which both storytelling and technology were the components.

Burton then listed several of his “storytelling mentors” – he lists Gene Roddenberry, Alex Haley and Fred Rogers as influences but says that his love for reading came from his mother, whom he described as a constant reader and instilled a passion for reading and education within him.

The Reading Rainbow host described the importance of technology in education. Burton understands that children don’t learn the same way they did when Reading Rainbow was on the air. We live in an era where everything we want is at our fingertips in a matter of seconds via smart phones and tablets, he said. That’s why he has developed new resources for a more tech-savvy generation of children including his Reading Rainbow Skybrary app that makes books and virtual field trips available to kids digitally.

Cassie Bonner, who works as a caterer for 20/20 catering that supplied Burton with healthy goodies before the show, was appreciative of Burton’s acceptance of the ever-changing digital world.

“His Passion is admirable, considering how much access kids have to technology these days,” says Bonner. “It’s refreshing to see a celebrity incorporating reading into a medium that children will respond to.”

Burton even understands that there may come a time when paper copies of books will no longer be practical. No matter how children read, whether it be print or digital, his message has stayed the same for 33 years.

“I just want kids to read,” says Burton.

After his speech, a question-and-answer session was offered to the audience in which many fans took the opportunity to thank Burton for the tremendous impact he had on their lives. The eager fans ranged from Star Trek fans to people of all ages who grew up on, and learned from, Reading Rainbow. One student even asked Burton to lead a sing-a-long of the shows iconic theme song in which he happily obliged.

The fans were very receptive to Burton, often interrupting him with thunderous bouts of applause. One fan, Sami Jarjour, who is a fan of both Reading Rainbow and his work in Roots, really enjoyed Burton’s presentation.

“It was interesting to hear him talk about the wide variety of topics and all of his work and how it all relates to each other and how he ties it back into education and literature and technology nowadays…”

Burton’s impact can not be doubted; not only has his illustrious career spanned decades and genres, but his success in the field of education is highly regarded. His Kickstarter campaign to bring Reading Rainbow back in app form as well as to classrooms reached $1 million in just 11 hours and eventually went on to raise almost $5.5 million. Burton is also an author; two of his books were available for purchase at the event, including his children’s book The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm.

Burton’s children’s book, The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, is available on Amazon.