Bad Reading News, Good Reading News
May 8, 2008 by Stefanie
Ah, vacation has begun. I can feel the stress already beginning to melt away. I have more LexisNexis searching to do for school tonight but I hope to be able to spend some time reading too, enough time for me to be able to have something of interest to post about tomorrow other than a quote or links. Of course, Maybe I’ll have a made gardener story to tell too.
In the meantime, I was not surprised to find this article in the New York Times that reports on a Department of Education report that has reviewed the results of President Bush’s $1billion a year Reading First program and found it wanting. Reading First is intended to improve the reading comprehension of of low-income children. The program, according to the Department of Education report has not improved reading scores. Can’t say that it’s much of a surprise really, I mean look whose idea it was. And to top that off there are allegations that federal officials and private contractors with ties to publishers “advised” educators on what reading materials to buy. There are also emails in which educators who wanted to follow an alternative curriculum as “dirtbags” who were “trying to crash our party.” Nope, no surprise that the program is a failure.
If that has gotten you down, check out the high school kids at the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest. These kids memorize and perform poems to compete for a $20,000 scholarship. The are bright and love poetry and totally get the poems they are reciting. They are truly inspiring.
SO inspiring! One of my co-worker’s daughters is in that group but I won’t out her :-). Thanks for the link!
Thanks for including an inspiration story after the depressing one — because the first story was SO depressing! It’s high time that man got out of office.
What a cool scholarship contest! I love memorising poetry.
Oh, I’m depressed by the news about failed reading programme. So muh potential for good work, and it is wasted.
But thanks for the poetry recitation contest link.
I do hope George Bush tried the program out personally first; we all know his English could do with a little work. Here’s my favourite Bush joke:
Donald Rumsfeld is giving President Bush his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: ‘Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed in Iraq.’ ‘OH NO!,’ the President exclaims. ‘That’s terrible!’ His staff are stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands, rocking backwards and forwards. Finally the President looks up and asks: ‘How many is a Brazillion?’
Why doesn’t that NYT article surprise me in the least! You know someone always benefits in these programs he comes up with, but it is rarely the person who needs it the most. Enjoy your vacation–my library has all of a sudden gotten rather empty of students today as well, since finals are finished!
How can I, a useless Canadian, encourage Americans to get things right this time?
Correct me if I am wrong, but is not John McCain something like George Bush on steroids?
I think President Bush misoverestimated his reading program.
Courtney, that is so cool! Your coworker must be very proud of her daughter.
Dorothy, I agree, time to get Bush out of office. He’s done enough damage to last several lifetimes.
Eva, isn’t an excellent contest? I wish it had been around when I was in high school. Not that I would have been any god, but I would have loved to have tried.
Dark Orpheus, the thing about the waste of that money for reading programs is that there are already very successful reading programs in place that could have used the money. But the Bush cronies wouldn’t have gotten any kick backs.
Litlove, LOL! That’s a good one. As far as his reading skills go, I think he hasn’t progressed much beyond the Hungry Caterpillar.
Danielle, thanks! I am already relaxing into the break.
Cip, I wouldn’t call McCain Bush on steroids, but he certainly wouldn’t change much about how the country is being run.
Brad, good one!