As a retired public school teacher, I am so grateful to see someone defend classroom libraries and student choice when it comes to reading. Many kids do enjoy nonfiction, so I am less concerned by the Common Core emphasis on informational texts, but I am dismayed by the politically motivated attacks on classroom and public libraries, and wholly unconvinced by the current love affair with the so-called science of reading. Used correctly, Balanced Literacy did not eliminate phonics instruction, it balanced phonics with other aspects of literacy. We have always swung between extremes in educational approaches. Why can't we do both/and instead of either/or? I am also grateful for all the individuals and organizations fighting the book bans--may these suits be successful!
Thank you so much for this thoughtful comment! One thing that seems especially distressing about the current moment is the hostility to teachers, which seems like something new (though the hostility to teachers‘ *unions* has certainly been around), a sad aftermath of the pandemic. In the reading I was doing about the “science of reading” push, teachers seemed so aware of how regimented the new curricula seem to be, and how they embed distrust of teachers‘ initiative in helping kids find their way and reject previous training that emphasized their skills and judgment. Watching from the outside one so wishes, as you say, for balance, and also for showing mutual respect and for taking time to build a considered practice, rather than rushing from one PR-driven campaign to another. We see throughout the society the dangers of not taking reading seriously, not reading with deliberation and care.
“I just worry a little that in a time of limited budgets, the classroom libraries that teachers have laboriously built, often with their own money, for many kids—in an environment of austerity that impacts not only their school but their local public libraries—may be the only books they have the opportunity to pick up for themselves, and now these close-to-hand books seem to be under threat from more than one direction.” Thank you, Ann!
As a retired public school teacher, I am so grateful to see someone defend classroom libraries and student choice when it comes to reading. Many kids do enjoy nonfiction, so I am less concerned by the Common Core emphasis on informational texts, but I am dismayed by the politically motivated attacks on classroom and public libraries, and wholly unconvinced by the current love affair with the so-called science of reading. Used correctly, Balanced Literacy did not eliminate phonics instruction, it balanced phonics with other aspects of literacy. We have always swung between extremes in educational approaches. Why can't we do both/and instead of either/or? I am also grateful for all the individuals and organizations fighting the book bans--may these suits be successful!
Thank you so much for this thoughtful comment! One thing that seems especially distressing about the current moment is the hostility to teachers, which seems like something new (though the hostility to teachers‘ *unions* has certainly been around), a sad aftermath of the pandemic. In the reading I was doing about the “science of reading” push, teachers seemed so aware of how regimented the new curricula seem to be, and how they embed distrust of teachers‘ initiative in helping kids find their way and reject previous training that emphasized their skills and judgment. Watching from the outside one so wishes, as you say, for balance, and also for showing mutual respect and for taking time to build a considered practice, rather than rushing from one PR-driven campaign to another. We see throughout the society the dangers of not taking reading seriously, not reading with deliberation and care.
The last paragraph very artfully done.
Oh thanks so much!
“I just worry a little that in a time of limited budgets, the classroom libraries that teachers have laboriously built, often with their own money, for many kids—in an environment of austerity that impacts not only their school but their local public libraries—may be the only books they have the opportunity to pick up for themselves, and now these close-to-hand books seem to be under threat from more than one direction.” Thank you, Ann!
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