Have you ever wondered why Johnny can’t read? There are two extremes in ability to read. At one end you have children that almost teach themselves and then they soar. We have friends who claim their three year old granddaughter can read. Our four year old is learning to recognize numbers. At the other end are some who cannot learn to read for some physical or mental reason. In between you have the ones who could and do, along with the ones who could but don’t.
Johnny can’t read for the same reason I can’t tie a fly fishing lure. He has no reason to do so. An example of this is the summer reading program at our city library. There was a big send off with free snow cones, bounce houses, and lots of crafts both inside and out. You were encouraged to sign up for the summer fun. This program will not help Johnny much because you can get every prize and award without ever getting in touching distance of a book.
The opening lines sound good.
SUMMER READING 2022Then you come to what they call the Activity Bank
Each time you complete an activity from the list below, color in an item. (Repeats are okay!) After completing five activities, come to the library for your first prize. After completing 10 activities, pick up a second prize! Prize pickup starts June 21. When you've completed the gameboard (24 activities) you will receive an entry for our grand prize drawing.
Read 30 minutes | Attend a library program | Visit a park | Download an eBook or eAudiobook | Read a new genre | Read by the water | Visit a RIO stop| Sing a sea shanty | Try a new cuisine | Make a craft or art project | Watch a movie based on a book | Relax with a "beach" read | Read a book on a reading listI counted thirteen activities. At best five of them have anything to do with reading. I don’t think going out for sushi is exactly something that benefits literacy.
On the way out I saw some signs advertising some kind of program offering free meals. If they use the same criteria for that then it will involves listening to songs about food, visiting city hall, drawing pictures of food and playing in a new park. Hungry? Too bad, that isn’t on the program.
The only way to improve reading is to read. Someone needs to tell our library that.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.