Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

'Reading Room' host Judith Lawrenson enjoys a learning project with sisters Sophia (left) and Jessica Sequeira.

Reading Room opens the world of books

By Chantal Lamers

Someday, Judith Lawrenson, host and creator of the KSAR children's program, "Reading Room," would like to be an icon of childhood memories and education like her hero, Mr. Rogers.

"He touches people's hearts," says Judith, a teacher at Sacred Heart Elementary School in Saratoga. She and her husband, Bill, a certified public accountant, are the force behind the "Reading Room." The Saratoga couple of 23 years says the dream grew from Judith's empty childhood, which she ultimately filled with words from books. "Books were her escape," Bill says.

Every day after school, Judith remembers, all of the children would go home. "I couldn't go home," she said. "I had a really unhappy childhood." So instead of going home to her family, she went to the library and eventually read every book on every shelf. Those books, she remembers, saved her from the family arguments that awaited her at home.

"Reading Room" airs live every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Five children, from preschoolers to third-graders, gather around a child-sized table in brightly colored chairs and begin the 30-minute show with a lesson on phonics.

"It shows [children] that television is a good thing. Television can teach, television can be fun, it can be educational," she says. But her wish extends far beyond the end of the program at 7 p.m. "When the program is over," she says, "I hope they'll turn off the television and pick up a book."

Judith says that her ideas for the show develop from her students and other children she works with. "If it was an adult idea," she says, "why would the children want to watch it?"

Tessa McGoldrick, access director of KSAR and the director of "Reading Room," says she encouraged Judith to do the show because the station didn't have any children's programs.

McGoldrick says that the station has only one definite way of measuring ratings: "Our ratings are hearing the community talk about it." And the community is talking about "Reading Room," McGoldrick says.

Judith says that since the show has aired, people in the community are recognizing her as the host of the show. "Aren't you the story lady?" she remembers one man asking her.

Six months and 21 episodes later, Bill has managed to find five other community stations--in Los Gatos, Cupertino, Menlo Park, Santa Cruz and Palo Alto--to broadcast the show.

"Reading Room" has also been nominated for an educational television program award by Western Access Video Excellence, which covers Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and California.

The program is filmed by a crew of three camera operators and one sound technician. All members, including McGoldrick, volunteer their time and skills to the show once a week for eight hours.

"We took a class at KSAR," Bill says of himself, Judith and their 20-year-old son, Bill, a Saratoga High School graduate who attends Cogswell Polytechnic College in Cupertino and who helps film the program. The course, required in order for them to produce a show, taught them how to operate the equipment and function in the studio. "We started designing sets and figuring out how to design the show. It's still unraveling," Bill says.

A "Reading Room" Web page, with children's drawings, is currently in the works. Judith says that the recent introduction of a puppet show was so popular that a new character, called the smart cat, will soon be added. Soon, it will be the children conducting the puppet show, says Judith, who likes to include the children as often as possible.

"If kids watch what other kids can do, they realize what's possible."

Judith says she is the lucky one, that she has been given the opportunity to teach these children and make a difference.

"I'd like to bring something to children to get them through their day," she says.

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