Reading for displeasure

News from the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts)--"reading for pleasure" in this country continues to decline, something we can all see in those around us (but hopefully not in ourselves!).

NEA Chairman Dana Gioia: "We are doing a better job of teaching kids to read in elementary school. But once they enter adolescence, they fall victim to a general culture which does not encourage or reinforce reading. Because these people then read less, they read less well. Because they read less well, they do more poorly in school, in the job market and in civic life."

I agree with one observer, who noted that in schools, we put so much focus on testing that we can't teach reading as something fun. The end result is valued more than the process. The simple joy of the story is lost in measuring how many words have been read and the size and complexity of those words. This system is so unfair to the kids and to the teachers. Not that those who make and insist on these tests are checking in much with what the kids and teachers think. Never have I met, in all my travels, a single teacher or educator who felt as though No Child Left Behind was helping rather than hindering. But that's a topic for a post when I have more time...