An approach based on experience
Since its creation, the approach of Read with me has been built on experiences, intuitions, exchanges with partners and professionals, inspirations and contributions from other actors and thinkers.
Historically, Read with me first refers to actions to promote culture and fight against illiteracy carried out in the 1960s by A.T.D. Fourth World [A.T.D. Quart Monde] and its founder Joseph Wresinski. The sharing of culture is deeply rooted in the action of A.T.D., in particular the street libraries, which remain a great source of inspiration.
It is also the creation of the association A.C.C.E.S. (Cultural Actions Against Exclusions and Segregations) in the early 1980s by psychiatrists-psychoanalysts René Diatkine, Tony Lainé and Marie Bonnafé, which inspired many initiatives and with which we share the same desire to prevent exclusion and segregation through cultural proposals from birth.
An approach nourished by encounters
The project is also nourished by the meeting with committed professionals in both french departments Le Nord and Le Pas-de-Calais such as Maurice Titran, a committed pediatrician to whom the quarterly review Spirale [Spiral] pays a fine tribute in 2010 and Colette Destombes, psychoanalyst and creator of Early Childhood North Association [Association Jeune Enfance Nord].
“Babies do not speak and yet… no one could doubt that they have a language! The books echo the emotions buried deep within them…”
Review Spirale n. 55: Reinventing early medico-social action –
Book title: A pediatrician at work
It is of course the encounters with people, from the youngest to the oldest, from the most eager to read to the most reluctant, that nourish, reinforce and develop our practices.
These are also collaborations and meetings with other associations, creators, practitioners, thinkers, researchers:
- Children’s book makers,
- Book readers and mediators,
- Librarians, booksellers, publishers,
- Early childhood, social and education professionals,
- Children’s Literature Specialists,
- Psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, pediatricians,
- Researchers in developmental psychology and neuroscience,
- Speech therapists, psychologists,
- Linguists, anthropologists,
- Institutional partners,
- Prevention actors,
- Writers, directors and journalists.
Several study days organized by Read with me also made it possible to deepen reflections, to share experiences and points of view.
In 2004, Read With Me participated in the founding of the national network The Agency when books connect [L'Agence quand les livres relient]
Actively participating in the Agency means walking with actors committed to the promotion of reading, to nourish thought, enrich actions, co-organize meetings, share values and reflections.