Sunday, August 30, 2009
A thing or two
I just read a post by Meg Cabot called How to Foster a Hatred For Reading that I thought I would share. It brings up an interesting point about something I am sure everyone has an opinion on. It also reminded me of Miri's post on her blog about the change in focus of children's shows and the cancellation of Reading Rainbow. I was never a huge fan of that show, but I realize it's influence and effect. And, like Meg Cabot, I hated The Scarlet Letter and Wuthering Heights (among others) simply because I was forced to read them. It is taking all I have to try to make myself reread Wuthering Heights and that's kind of sad, right?
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That IS sad for sure. I have always hated Frankenstein and in fact have never finished it (it was the first time I'd ever not finished something I was supposed to read for school, which I took as a statement of how much I hated it).
I don't agree with EVERYTHING Meg Cabot says in her post, but I do agree that it's important to let kids read the things they want to read because at this point, we're lucky if kids want to read at all.
I think it is important to read the classics, and I never had a problem with being told what to read in high school. I also don't have a problem with critical analysis the way she was talking about it--yes, some people carry it WAY too far, and of course no one can know what the author really meant, but I don't think that means we shouldn't study it. Talking about symbolism shouldn't ruin books for you, it should just help you see different aspects of it and, if nothing else, learn how to think about things from different angles and see all the different perspectives in it.
As far as Reading Rainbow goes, I just have to say that I think it's funny/surprising that neither Lindsey nor Megan loved the show, when I totally did. This is possibly because the only TV I was allowed to watch as a child was educational--shows like Bill Nye, 3-2-1 Contact, Reading Rainbow, and other stuff on Nova--so I had a different TV experience growing up. But yeah, I did love that show. Not as much as Wishbone though! THAT'S one I wish we still had.
Anyway, the moral of all these stories is that in a lot of ways adults who are trying to help kids read are using the completely wrong methods and just shooting themselves, and the kids, in the foot (feet?), and that is a very sad thing.
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