Alan & Brenda Leonard

2/26/03 01:02:

> Sustained silent reading (SSR) programs are a hot trend in education
> right now (at least in California where I am).
>
I agreed with the two quotes you posted from Pilgreen, but here's my problem
with the various silent reading programs: they don't ask if kids are ready
to read at this particular moment.

I have times when I don't wanna read. I'm just not in the mood. Yea, in
school, maybe it would have been more fun than a lot of the things we did.
But if you're not in the mood to read, is sitting quietly, staring at a book
to make a teacher happy, while feeling surly inside REALLY going to help a
child's love of reading?

I suppose that challenges the basic foundation of school itself; namely that
kids should happily do what they're told to do at any given moment, but
that's what bugs me about those programs.

brenda

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In a message dated 2/26/03 2:40:53 AM, abtleo@... writes:

<< But if you're not in the mood to read, is sitting quietly, staring at a
book
to make a teacher happy, while feeling surly inside REALLY going to help a
child's love of reading?
>>

Not a bit.
But it looks good on the school's PR raz-ma-tazz about how they CARE about
reading and giving kids a chance to really get some quiet time to read
(formerly, insert "anything they want to").

I can't believe SSR is being combined with prescribed books. That's just
"making kids read."

Somewhere along there the line is crossed, and it's whether ANY freedom lies
with the child.

Sandra