Reading despite school, revisited

 

Teachers, parents and students agree with British author Philip Pullman who said, “We are creating a generation that hates reading and feels nothing but hostility for literature.” Students spend time on test practice instead of perusing books. Too many schools devote their library budgets to test-prep materials, depriving students of access to real literature. Without this access, children also lack exposure to our country’s rich cultural range. from letter to President Obama on Standardized Testing (signed by over 120 children's book authors via the FairTest website

Here's the irony. I don't think publishers have ever produced a better choice of high quality, high interest books just for kids. And schools have never done more to kill a love of reading....

• Is testing killing the love of reading? For kids whose families do not have a strong culture of reading for pleasure, absolutely.
• Is the way we focus on reading "skills" killing the love of reading? For kids whose families do not have a strong culture of reading for pleasure, absolutely. 
• Is asking for over-analysis of literature (and now, thanks to Common Core, non-fiction), killing the love of reading? For kids whose families do not have a strong culture of reading for pleasure, absolutely.
• Is asking students to read "a classic" without making the connection to the work's relevance to modern day killing the love of reading? For kids whose families do not have a strong culture of reading for pleasure, absolutely.
• Is denying students access to a well-stocked, professional selected collection of reading materials (aka school library) killing the love of reading? For kids whose families do not have a strong culture of reading for pleasure, absolutely.
• Is financially supporting reading textbook publishers and computerized reading programs killing the love of reading? For kids whose families do not have a strong culture of reading for pleasure, absolutely.
• Is killing the love of reading a purposeful tactic for keeping the poor and disenfranchised, poor and disenfranchised? Hey, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you....

I re-read Read-a-cide last week. It's worth revisiting or if you've not read it, do so. It will take a subversive, ground-up movement that stops this educational stupidity and cruelty, not a government program. Are you doing your part?

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From "Little Bunny Books - reading despite school", Jan 21, 2009

As I remember the story, grandson Paul came home one day from first grade and declared that he didn't like to read anymore. Coming from a "reading" family, this wasn't received particularly well. A little investigation by his parents discovered what Paul really didn't like was reading the required materials in the reading series. He called them "little bunny stories." The happy ending is that Paul's parents visited the library and bookstore and found books more suited to his reading interests. Mostly Dave Pilkey Captain Underpants books (that his grandfather enjoys as well).

I'm thinking of this bit of family lore as I read Kelly Gallagher's e-book,Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It. Gallagher defines:

Read-i-cide: noun, the systematic killing of the love ofreading, often  exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools

and suggests that

...rather than helping students, many of the reading practices found in today’s classrooms are actually contributing to the death of reading. In an earnest attempt to instill reading, teachers and administrators push practices that kill many students’ last chance to develop into lifelong readers.

Gallagher offers solutions to schools creating alliterate graduates - one of which is reading for fun. I wish the author had a more positive view of libraries - he insists that classroom libraries best serve kids. This is something the profession needs to work on - emphasizing the school library's role in creating classroom-housed collections.

I often wonder just how much I would read if I was permitted to read only a certain number of pages per day (NO READING AHEAD), only could read things that were interesting to female elementary teachers - who haven't read any new children's literature possibly since they finished their college children's lit class but even more likely, since they were in elementary or middle school themselves -  assigned, and on which I had to complete worksheets. Is it any wonder why video games look good to kids?

Paul's story had a happy ending despite his school, not because of his school. Paul didn't like reading at the time because he was a good reader, not because he was a poor reader. How sad is it that for all children that schools are not helping struggling readers plus destroying successful ones?

Share this book, along with Krashen's Power of Reading, 2nd edition, with reading specialists, teachers and parents. But only if you care if the next generation reads more than text messages.

Comments

[Kenn Gorman]

I have decided that when my daughters want to buy books I almost always say yes - even if they are comic books. I see them almost every day trying to figure out what the teacher wants them to report and NOT what they personally get from their reading.

...and it looks like it is time for me to re-read the Chronicles of Narnia again...

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Kenn,

I bought my own kids a lot of books and trip to B&N is a ritual each time I see my grandsons. I also took my kids to the public library and my grandsons have that experience as well. I often think of G. Robert Carlson who I had as an adolescent lit professor at the U of Iowa who said the only question we should ask kids about their reading is "What did the material make you think about?"

Say hello to Aslan for me.

Doug