For the love of books…
May 5, 2011 6 Comments
Grumble *blanked blank blank* stupid morons…
“Reading is not standard based” according to what my husband was told by his work and the high school library is hurting gravely because of it.
Question ~ How can one READ the standards if one cannot read at all?
The reading programs gone, the library is a shell of it’s former self. A tumble weed passes as dust swirls behind it from a gust of wind that leaves an empty ringing in ones ears. Hey, how did a tumble weed get in the library? Oh yeah, it was let in from the door of imagination. A door that is being slammed shut by administrators, budget cuts, and ignorant people who think reading is a waste of time. If we don’t allow reading in schools, what next, do we take away water from drinking fountains? That’s right I forgot to mention that part. The English teachers are not allowed (NOT ALLOWED) to let the kids have 15 minutes a day of reading time, that was taken away too. So there are no reading books in school, and this time it’s not because they are replaced with e-readers, it’s because reading isn’t part of their education. If this keeps going on, I picture in 10 years the books being removed from their dusty, cobwebbed shelves, with brittle, weak, unloved spines that break as they are heaved into a disgusting, filthy dumpster. Where, written on the outside of the dumpster, well, more drawn, are pictures scribbled in graffiti by former students whose education took the same turn as those poor books… the dumpster. My poor husband has fought to the point of fear of losing his job, something no one can afford. Soon the goose step will be the only step these teachers are allowed to make, come on America, this is not Hitler Germany, books are great things and children should be encouraged to read them and the more the better, not shot down for it. There should be something we can do to save our books, our libraries, our schools, and most importantly, our children’s education.
*** Additional 5/06/2011 at 3:24 pst~ I had almost forgotten one other thing they did regarding the textbooks and reading books. Last year the English teachers were teaching with Springboard (link-> http://springboardprogram.collegeboard.org/?s_kwcid=TC|7002|springboard||S|e|6822379724 ). This wonderful program allowed teachers to have the students read excerpts from a very large variety of novels, news articles, and also watch clips of movies. Oh, and did I mention that these books were free and consumable so the kids could write notes and such in them? They were free on a grant from Paramount Farms (link – http://www.paramountfarms.com/#perfectgrowing ).Paramount is awesome, they love helping education and giving scholarships, but the grant was only for Springboard and with that gone they were not going to buy the English department new textbooks. Yes, the school took away Springboard and said that it didn’t state the CA standards in it. This meant the school needed to buy new textbooks. This cost about $125,000 and caused an uproar. The teachers and students both don’t like the new textbooks. Little can be done here because the grant is now lost and the students and teachers are stuck.
Sarah Winters' Blog 
That is such a shame. This is a trend that must be stopped. I’m so glad that my boys’ elementary school has such a wonderful reading program. But will this continue in junior high and high school? Who knows. I really hope that we will be able to prevent this from happening. If it does happen, our world will not be the better for it, that’s for sure.
I agree. I worry about the way the educational world will be, mostly for the younger kids. Children that are near middle school age (11 and up), more than likely, have been taught to love and respect books. Although I really worry about what high school will be like for my oldest who starts next year. She’ll be going to a different school than the one my husband works at so I don’t know how their reading programs will work. I’m so happy that she already has a deep love for books. High school is hard enough; they don’t need to take away the little escapes these kids have.
No reading in school? That’s like saying not eating in a movie theatre. I mean, seriously what would it hurt to request they read ‘something’ (be it a paper, magazine, comic, manga, etc.) for at least 15 minutes and then perhaps write a bit about it. That way the teacher can make certain the child has comprehension of what was read. Without comprehension of what you are reading (which thus leads to ‘doing’ as well if it is a manual, instruction sheet, test/homework questions, etc.), you will have difficulty later on. I for one, absolutely loved the reading assignments, especially since we had to write after (I could share my thoughts and not have to speak about it in class which terrified me because I was afraid I would say something stupid & be made fun of). It’s sad. I’m not really keen on the electronic reading devices, mostly because I like the comfort I receive in holding the book and know that no batteries/charging or dropping it/breaking will prevent me from reading my favorite book(s), but if it’ll get a child to read then it’ll do.
Thank you, Christy! You made me remember one other thing that was taken away and replaced with something worse. And I totally agree I loved writing papers rather than giving verbal reports, for the same reason as you.
Stuff like this makes me so angry! School administrators can be so ignorant. How can they possibly think that reading will hurt kids?
Oh I know. I was soooo hot and mad when I typed this I had to walk away twice. Books are good and make kids and adults alike think and grow. Books are our friends. his school also took away the libraries entire budget for new and replaced books. He was told that if he cut from other places they would give the library some book spending. So he cut and cut and cut and they turned around and more-or-less said, ‘thank you for helping us save money, never mind on that whole book thing.’ After the school, not the school library, pockets all the late, damaged, and missing book fees so he can’t even use that in the libraries aid. We donate, but we can only give so much since they cut almost all his overtime hours. He now volunteers an hour in the morning and 20 min after school, but not his lunch, he did that last year.