Teachers are Mandated Reporters

The Washington Post has a heartbreaking story here about a seven-year-old boy who was so hungry he was trying to sell his teddy bear for food money.  When the police investigated they found four more older boys also living in the home, which was filthy, and filled with trash and empty liquor bottles.  It's difficult to read the story without getting tears in your eyes.

 As a high school teacher for almost forty years, I'm wondering how this could have gone on for any length of time.  Surely there would have been some sign of abuse or neglect on at least one of those children.  Teachers are mandated reporters.  Did no one see anything?  A couple of the boys were old enough to be in high school.  I am never surprised that abused or neglected kids don't speak up themselves, but by high school they usually have friends, and I know that I usually learned about abusive homes from friends of the victims.  Teachers out there:  Keep your eyes open!  And don't assume that if you just tell Guidance that a report will also go out to the police.  Call the police yourself.

Holding Kids Back

The Washington Post reports here on a new policy in Florida:  students whose parents refused to let them take the state mandated standardised tests in third grade will not be promoted to fourth grade, no matter how academically competent the kids are--and some are honor roll students.  I had to read the article twice this morning just to believe it.

Wow.  Talk about a really unbelievably stupid policy.  New research shows that holding back failing students just makes them more likely to fail and eventually drop out.  http://educationbythenumbers.org/content/new-research-failing-students_2034/  And this study was done with students who had trouble achieving.  Imagine how demoralizing it will be for students who have worked hard all year, gotten good grades, and are then blocked from advancing to the next grade.

Plus, of course, it costs a substantial amount of money to have many students repeating a grade.  The school district will have to hire more teachers, and build more classrooms. 

And, of course, the main point is that the best way to find out how well students are reading is to find out how much they are reading.  Only kids with a love and habit of reading acquire sophisticated reading skills.  Schools should worry about building a love of reading in their students and stand with parents on the destructiveness of multiple standardised tests.

The Most Important Reason for Reading

The Washington Post has an article in their Health section here that describes that describes new research showing that readers live longer than non-readers.  I was glad to see it, although I don't think adding a few years to the end of your life is the most important reason for reading.

The best reason for reading is that it enriches your life.  And it certainly enriches your children’s lives.  Kids who are avid readers read better, write better, concentrate better, and do better in all of their subjects, across the board.  I taught high school English for almost forty years, and found that it didn’t even matter much what my students read, as long as they had a love and habit of reading.  Many of my best readers, as kids, read comic books, fantasy and romance and mystery series, and much popular fiction.  A love of reading is the best educational gift you can give to your children.

Should Grandparents Babysit?

The New York Times has an interesting article here on the kinds of issues that arise over the topic of grandparents babysitting.  Be sure to look at the comments.  Personally, I think anytime we care for someone else, our own life gets richer and more satisfying.

The New York Times Jumps in on Getting Kids to Read

The New York Times has a good editorial here about the importance of getting your children to read during their summer vacation.  My only real criticism of it is that the author devotes much time to trying to figure out if it's okay to bribe children to read.  I wish she had thought to mention that what is really important is being willing to spend money to buy books that kids can love.  And the rules some parents had for their children made me uneasy, like requiring that all of the reading was in books that were on their grade level, and that they hadn't read before.

I devoted much of my 37 years of teaching high school English to helping my students become avid readers.  And I paid attention to the avid readers who walked into my classroom.  I found out this about them:  they almost always developed their love and habit of reading through series books, like the Harry Potter books, or the fantasy books by Rick Riordan, or the Big Nate graphic novels.   Their parents were willing and able to spend money for their books, since libraries rarely had all of the books in the particular series they loved.

Ms KJ Dell'antonia is right about the importance of reading.  My avid readers read better, wrote better, and did better in all of their classes.  

So do everything you can to help your children love reading.  Just don't expect that they will love the same books that you did.  I really believe that all reading is good, and that any kind of reading eventually leads to more reading.  My students who loved comic books and mysteries and fantasies and romances as children were the only ones who read well enough to love Shakespeare in high school. 

A Reason to Buy a House Rather than Rent

The NYTimes has an article here giving the advantages of buying or renting a house.  The article looks at the choice purely in financial terms, but I think they've missed one of the most important reasons for buying a home:  children.

A huge benefit to buying a house, if you have  children, is that now they can stay in the same neighborhood and the same school system.  Moving can be very hard on children, and in my thirty plus years of teaching high school, I saw a number of my students fall apart when their families moved, whereas those who had grown up in the same small town were able to keep close friends for years.  Plus, a stable school situation is usually a great benefit for children with learning issues.

J.K. Rowling is Back!

The New York Times has a story here about the new play that J.K. Rowling has written using the characters from her Harry Potter series.  The comments I found especially interesting, as so many writers told about their love or the series, and describe how it brought them to a love of books.  There was the occasional snotty comment of someone who is clearly angry that a children's book author gets so much attention and acclaim.  The post by Peter Giordano is typical of them, calling Rowling's books trashy and calling her a hack.  I just had to respond to his posting, as I think people who think like he does have done more to cause a reading crisis than all of the televisions and video games in the country:

Oh Peter, Peter.  I wonder if you've actually read the books you are so confidently writing off.  I was a high school English teacher when they were coming out, and I read them, since my students were falling in love with them.  I found them to be very well-written children's literature--fresh and funny and full of interesting themes and characters.  Plus they brought an untold number of children to a love of reading.