I love to read. Surprise! I have always loved to read. I was the kid who checked ten books out of the library and read them all in a week. I also understand that a lot of kids I encounter at the library do not love to read and are asking me for "at least 100 pages, realistic fiction" because they are being forced to do a book report. Anyway, blah blah, reader's advisory.

What I really wanted to rant about was Reading Rainbow. I got myself all into a huff about it yesterday and had cooked up a good blog rant, but of course found my huff to have dissipated somewhat by today. I'll try to still bring out my best huffy nature, though. As my friends, family, and co-workers know, it is not that hard for me. So basically, I had heard that Reading Rainbow would no longer be producing new shows. I was nostalgically sad about it, but sort of figured this was just the way things were.

But THEN I heard a piece on NPR about it yesterday that turned sad into mad. What it said was the show wasn't being renewed because absolutely no one would pony up the several hundred thousand dollar renewal cost. And why? Well, partly it's tough times. But the main reason is because the new emphasis on "teaching reading" on television is to teach basics like phonics. Don't get me started on the idea that you can learn reading by watching television. We will "bracket that question" as one professor used to always say in class.

So because Reading Rainbow is a show about the love of reading, the magic of reading, the entire point of reading, it goes bye bye. It is not a show about drilling. It is not a show about making reading the most boring venture possible.

I'm not sure that very many people demonstrate the joy of reading anymore. Clearly public television no longer believes in it. Based on what I overhear, many parents take the drilling approach. And from what I can tell, teachers can kill even an enthusiastic child's love of reading.**

Evidence point number one: this week a kid came in and told me that his teacher said the only way they could get an A on their book report was to read a 400 page book. He was in 6th grade. A 200 page book? Only rated a B. The worst part was that this was a kid who actually liked to read, but most really long books for kids are fantasy and he wasn't a fantasy guy. So of course, this was taking something he enjoyed and turning it into an arduous chore.

Evidence point number two: Accelerated Reader. I kind of understand how asking kids to read and then making them take quizzes on the book sounded like a good idea at the time. Basically it saves teachers a lot of time, because you don't have to do anything difficult to see if the child actually read and "understood" the book. And I like that the kids can pick from a very extensive list of books in a wide variety of genres. But what I always hear is "I have to read a blah blah level book" or "I need blah blah number of points." So once again, we have turned reading into a chore.

Just to clarify, I do know that teachers are under pressure because of testing and NCLB to emphasize skills. So I am happy to also blame the powers that be for killing the love of reading.

Anyway, of course now I am despairing for the world and feeling like no one cares about reading anymore--oh sure, they care about learning to read, but what is the motivation for a child to do that when the end goal is presented as a chore, something boring to do for school, with no inherent value?

Looks like I was well about to cook up my rant, huh?

**Okay, there are a few teachers out there who do encourage the love of reading in their students. They are rare.