(SOUNDBITE OF NAS SONG, "I CAN")
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
When Steph Curry isn't on the basketball court, he spends time in local public schools, playing defense against illiteracy.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I CAN")
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP: (Singing) I know I can be what I want to be.
STEPH CURRY: Minority kids especially are behind, and once you fall behind, it's so hard to catch up.
SIMON: Statistics show that about 17% of Black students and 23% of Latino students in Oakland public schools read on grade level. The overall picture is grim. Roughly half of American adults read at or below a sixth-grade level. Tackling illiteracy as early as possible is something that Steph Curry and his wife, Ayesha Curry, are trying to do through their foundation, Eat. Learn. Play.
S CURRY: Our foundation is built upon, obviously, life experiences of - my mom was a lifelong educator, doing the Montessori school system, and so it was a high priority. But then, as part of, you know, what we do at Eat. Learn. Play., you know, we're trying to be the village for, you know, the next generation of kids here, be the bridge for them to create resources that can allow them to stay on par with their counterparts. You know, making reading fun, and letting them explore the world that way.
AYESHA CURRY: A lot of times, the students come into the school system, and their parents can't read at home. And so, of course, when their parents, you know, are not reading to them and nurturing them in that way as much as they want to, they don't have that option. And then you just have kids just, you know, learning at a different pace. And when you're within the public school system, you don't always have the option to have, you know, that one-on-one time with the books and an educator the way that you need to in order to progress.
SIMON: May I ask, Steph Curry - you mentioned your mother, Sonya, who was an educator. Of course, your father played for the Cavaliers, right?
S CURRY: Yes, he did. And that's where I was born, actually, in Akron.
SIMON: I'm a Cavs fan.
S CURRY: (Laughter) I won't hold it against you. It's OK.
SIMON: I must say, with all due regard, I...
S CURRY: (Laughter).
SIMON: Well, the rivalry's not what it used to be, but maybe later.
S CURRY: (Laughter).
SIMON: Did your mother say, Steph, you can't touch that basketball until you've finished your homework or anything like that?
S CURRY: The discipline around that and the setting of priorities was the message I remember the most growing up. You know, your faith was the most important. Your education was second. Sports and everything else came after. And I was a kid that took it serious and, you know, cried when I got a B, like, that type of thing. But, you know, I'm thankful for it, obviously, 'cause you do have a set of priorities where you have to take care of your responsibilities, and then the privileges come after that.
SIMON: Yeah. Ayesha Curry, you, of course, are a bestselling cookbook author.
A CURRY: Yes (laughter).
SIMON: What is your foundation, Eat. Learn. Play., trying to do? What are the details to reverse illiteracy among children?
A CURRY: Oh, my goodness. I mean, for us, it's, like, really nurturing the entire child. And that includes, like, access to quality nutrition, safe places to play and quality education. And so with those three things, we truly believe that we can unlock a child's full potential. And so for me, I started a long time ago, doing a lot of work with No Kid Hungry, and that's when I truly became aware of the lack of nutrition.
SIMON: Nutrition is all tied up in reading, isn't it?
A CURRY: Absolutely, yeah. If you're not nourished, you don't - your brain function is just depleted, and the rest kind of falls out of line. And at the time, I was a new mom, first-time mom, and I quickly heard the statistics. At the time, I believe 1 in 5 children were going to school hungry. Sometimes, the meal within the school system that they were getting was the only meal that they were getting for the entire day. And so for me, my, like, personal love comes from the form of the eat pillar of Eat. Learn. Play. But then, when it comes to the literacy, we're parents. We're in the thick of it. And as a parent, like, the thought of not being able to provide something so simple as, like, the ability to read to my child is so upsetting. And so for me, I just would love to eradicate that.
S CURRY: We're trying to kind of attack it with a more specific approach around tutoring. So for us, a part of our pledge to the school district - a $25 million pledge - is to make, you know, access to tutoring the expectation and not the exception and, you know, understand the widespread effect that that could have on catching kids up, where, you know, that trickle-down effect, hopefully, from a generation to a generation will be a big deal. And, well, we're in it for the long run.
SIMON: So you say you're in it for the long run. Can you tell if - how much impact you're having now?
S CURRY: Just being able to, you know, have a partnership with the Oakland Unified School District - I think we've already seen results there, mostly around nutrition and making sure that there are breakfast and meal plans available to all kids that are in Oakland Unified School District. And I know every, you know, city, every region, has their own unique problems and issues and ways that they're approaching it, but we hopefully want to provide a model that can be proven to have a lasting impact on kids. You talked about through literacy, through nutrition, what we're doing with our play space refurbishments. And it's not just changing the school. It's changing the way a community sees themselves because you drive by a school, and some of them look like jail yards and don't have any life or, you know, vibrance to them. But now you see kids out there running, having a great time, laughing. It's not just for the kids, not just for the teachers. It's for the parents and the entire community. So it's a lofty goal, but it's something that we're really committed to.
A CURRY: We, just today, like, are finishing, like, our sixth schoolyard this year, and 15th. We have plans for over 30 more over the next several years, 11 more planned by the end of 2026. You know, with this new literacy program and the access to this high-level tutoring, I believe we're going to be able to reach more than 3,000 students - reaching first the kids that are the lowest on the totem pole, so those kids that are, like, 2 to 3 grade levels behind. It goes to say, like, obviously, it's not, like, because of us. We're the dot connectors. It really is because of these amazing partners allowing us to kind of, you know, join forces with them to amplify the help.
SIMON: I got tell you - tell me if I'm wrong. I find a message in the very name that you've settled on, Eat. Learn. Play. Those are three pillars of life, and I'm glad play is in there.
A CURRY: Absolutely. They're pillars of life. They're, like, the fundamentals of childhood. It should be a nonnegotiable.
SIMON: May I ask you - when you go to a school and authorities say, this is Ayesha and Steph Curry, does a youngster ever say, Ayesha Curry, the cookbook author?
(LAUGHTER)
A CURRY: I can honestly say that it's never happened.
(LAUGHTER)
A CURRY: But you know what? I like it that way. We're, like, do-the-work people (laughter). We don't need anybody to notice (laughter).
SIMON: Ayesha and Steph Curry, their foundation, Eat. Learn. Play. Thank you very much.
A CURRY: Thank you.
S CURRY: Thank you so much for the time. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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