I thought that Gallagher’s notion that schools have killed children’s love of reading was very interesting. I loved reading growing up and still enjoy curling up with a good book. After I left elementary school, my five siblings that followed me participated in the Accelerated Reader program. Now, not one of them has the passion for reading that I do. Did AR contribute to their indifference and hatred? I’m sure there were other factors, but I can’t help but wonder if AR was a major one.
This chapter also caused me to reflect on my classroom, especially SSR time. I encourage my students to read, however I don’t think I try hard enough. Studies show that reading is extremely valuable and I can’t ignore the facts. Next year, I want to make sure that I am doing a better job at facilitating SSR. In the beginning of the year, I will probably force my students to read something. Once they get into it, hopefully they will get interested. I would like to do a better job at offering more options for them. I would like to take them to the library once a month and help them choose things to read based on their interests. Twenty minutes is a really long time to do nothing, so I hope that my students will see the value in reading.
Lastly, I have been thinking a lot lately about the way the current education system in the United States is right now. We shove a whole bunch of content into students brains, ask them to regurgitate it on a state-mandated test and then they promptly forget it because it is not relevant to their lives. As a nation, we need to find different ways to reach our students and assess their progress. Our students don’t care about their education because we haven’t made it meaningful. We are not only killed reading, we are killing education.
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