Betsy

**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 don't love "sustained silent reading" either. But I loathed some of
the things we read in Lit class. (Yes, Joseph Conrad, I'm talking to
you!) So, seeing educators believe that kids should get to pick what
they read is a tiny step in the right direction.

Obviously we can do better "sustained silent reading" in our homes, as
well as "sustained loud reading" and "interrupted loud reading" and all
the other kinds of reading. <g> And when we're not reading, we're still
learning and having a good time. I think unschooling is better, cooler
AND more fun than any school program.

However, I was also happy to read a couple of "official" books about
reading programs that said, essentially, if you WANT kids to read
enthusiastically, for god's sake DON'T make them do book reports. This
strikes me as a valuable insight. It's funny to see how much the school
establishment fights against it and wants to keep it's hallowed book
reports, though.

I'm really pretty off topic here, so I think I should stop.

Betsy