What's a story worth?

On my way home from school my first winter driving, I lost control of my '61 Corvair and slid into the ditch about half a mile from our farm. Leaving the car half buried in snow, I walked home and asked Dad if he would help me pull it out.

"Oh, the roads are too icy," he said with a straight face, "It will just need to stay there until spring."

Not what I wanted to hear since I liked driving the eight and a half miles to school much better than taking the school bus with the "little kids." But what could I do?

A couple days later, I got off the bus to find my car in the driveway. I never got the expected lecture about driving more carefully from Dad. But I've driven with greater care on icy roads ever since.

I rarely mention commercial products in this blog, but I received an unusual Father's Day gift this year that other readers may find of  interest.

My children signed me up for StoryWorth. This service sends questions (what we English teachers would call writing prompts) each week to the recipient. One has a week to complete the narrative which is then returned to StoryWorth. The stories along with any accompanying photos are compiled at the end of a year into a print book.

So far my questions have been:

• How did you feel when your first child was born?
• What would you consider your motto?
• What fads did you participate in when growing up?

The gift givers may create their own questions and the writer may opt out of any question. There is no standard length of response. 

While I am a fairly prolific writer, I've tended to stick to exposition rather than narrative. But I certainly recognize the power of good stories and have used them to help explain a concept or argue a position. So while I will never write a best selling novel, I have had some practice in telling a story, including a few tall tales.

This will be an interesting task, testing my memory, my empathy (what would my children actually like to know), and my own honesty. As Mary McCarthy observes, "We are the hero of our own story." Like most people, I have lived a life of which I am both proud and ashamed, filled with both happy memories and sad regrets. Over the course of the year, I suspect some of each may be related.

Oh, and at my daughter's request, I may throw in a few exaggerations.

Thanks, kids. Wonderful present!

Image source 

BFTP: Love, balance, and critical thinking

I wrote the post below nearly 5 years ago. My observation "I can't help but feel the country, if not the world, is ever more polarized and less centered" is more accurate than ever today...

The most important word in our language is love. The second is balance — keeping things in perspective. - John Wooden

As a long-time advocate of balance, I like the graphic above. In my article, Change from the Radical Center of Education Teacher-Librarian, June 2008, I suggested that "radical centrists" in education, adopt to the following principles if one is to truly make change...

1. Adopt an “and” not “or” mindset.
2. Look for truth and value in all beliefs and practices.
3. Respect the perspective of the individual. 
4. Recognize one size does not fit all (kids or teachers).
5. Attend to attitudes.
6. Understand that the elephant can only be eaten one bite at a time.
7. Make sure everyone is moving forward, not just the early adopters.
8. Don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know.”
9. Believe measurement is good, but that not everything can be measured.
10. Know and keep your core values.

As I read the papers, listen to NPR, and even read friends' and relatives' Facebook posts, I can't help but feel the country, if not the world, is ever more polarized and less centered. "If I can't get everything I want, I don't want anything at all!" is the mantra of the decade.

Schools that produce believers rather than thinkers are failures. Schools that produce graduates who are capable of exhibiting, empathy, thinking critically, developing multiple "right" answers, and changing one's beliefs based on evidence are successful.

It doesn't feel like we've done a very good job. Yet.

Original post 1/18/16

BFTP: Soft bigotry of low expectations in reading

In contrast, Kim (2004) estimated that just reading five books over the summer results in a gain of about three percentiles, about the same as the huge investment required by Read 180. Stephen Krashen

I was struck once again when reading Scholastic's School Libraries Work, 2016 Edition just how unjust reading instruction can be in too many schools. In study after study, quality library programs lead by progressive librarians build reading skills by getting kids to read. This is not exactly news. One of my heroes, Stephen Krashen, has been linking free voluntary reading to improved reading scores since the early 90s.

So when schools start to spend vast sums of money on computerized reading "systems" and under fund school libraries and cut professional library staff, I worry. Do these expensive "read the text on the screen, take the quiz, advance to the next level" programs improve test scores? Results are mixed. But let's assume that programs like Read 180 provide effective intervention for struggling readers and really do improve reading abilities as measure on state tests. Fantastic - we as educators can now say "job well done" and pat ourselves on the back.

If simply the ability to read is the ultimate goal of our schools.

Personally, making reading ability not reading attitude the sole measure of success for students is the very definition of "soft bigotry of low expectations." As Mark Twain once observed, "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them." My goal as a librarian and teacher has always been to create "life-long critical readers." Citizens who not only can read, but do read.

• Out of love of the act.
• Out of a need to know the truth.
• Out of the need to view the world through the eyes and souls of others.
• Out of the need to be changed by what one reads.

Do we spend so much time getting students, especially struggling readers, to pass tests that we actually kill their enjoyment of reading? Solving illiteracy but creating masses of the alliterate.

Think twice before you put a child in front a computer to learn how to read instead putting that child in the hands of a caring librarian who uses just the right book.

Original post 3/28/16