I am right with you on this one. I also think it sends the wrong message about reading, which is that one needs to be bribed to do it because it has no intrinsic rewards.
A kid I knew recently won a bike - no kidding, an actual bike - in a school reading thing. Everyone around him was talking about how cool it was that he had read so many books that he won a bike, but I never heard a single person ask him "so, which book did you like the best? who's your favorite author?"
Reading came easily to me, so when we had the book-reading contests, they were also focused on how many books, not how many minutes. We'd make those paper chains of how many books one had read. I never had the longest chain, but I read the most challenging books.
I did those paper-chains too, and my innate competitiveness kept me from the more complex books in favor of quantity. I had to win so I went for the recognized win, not the smug satisfaction that I could out read anyone there. In their efforts to get kids to read something, anything, they succeeded in making me read lots of anything. My parents were shocked when a reading comprehension test I had in 4th grade came back as, "Reads at 3rd grade level." What helped was getting involved with the smart-kids clique where if you weren't reading at 6th grade level, you didn't really belong. I earned 'most improved' in 4th grade.
I think there is something else to this. Obviously you as a parent and as a reader have placed a value on reading. I don't think there is anything wrong with having a contest that places value on reading if everyone participating is rewarded equally. I think that may be a better approach. If you want to instill a message that says reading is valuable(I believe it is) then I applaud that.
When I was growing up, reading was not very valuable. My parents read the paper on a daily basis but rarely cracked a book outside of that. I didn't get the reading bug until 9th grade where I had the choice of selecting a "literature" course. I chose Myth & Fantasy where I was introduced into a realm of gods, nymphs, dryads and hobbits. I hated geometry and chose instead to read during class rather than prove theorems. I'm glad I did because that has led me to continue to read for pleasure. Out of my siblings I am the ONLY one who reads for pleasure and outside of assigned reading. I almost missed the best boat in life.
Your story reminds me how I benefitted immensely from having parents who are avid readers. It was a common sight in my house to have mom on the couch reading fantasy, dad in his chair reading sci-fi and me on the floor reading horror or comics.
It is good and important to model the behaviors you wish from children. I don't know that every child has to love books and reading. I think functional literacy and basic text analysis is probably enough.
Just because it's my value, and I am the child and grandchild of avid readers, does not make reading-for-pleasure intrinsically better than other hobbies.
Well, we treat it like it is subculturally, and the subculture is one in which we spend almost all of our time. How much that means about broader cultural groups' privileging of pleasure-reading, I don't know. It may well be that what we think of as overpraised is still substantially underpraised in a larger average population.
I agree both with you and the original post. However, I think I challenge the assumption of an assumption. I think she 'gets' the competitive environment aspect, but I too recall that it occasionally boomerangs. In many ways it promotes less competition and effort if the crowd notices that some individuals are simply better at a task regardless of level of effort.
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A kid I knew recently won a bike - no kidding, an actual bike - in a school reading thing. Everyone around him was talking about how cool it was that he had read so many books that he won a bike, but I never heard a single person ask him "so, which book did you like the best? who's your favorite author?"
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His teacher and I spend a lot of time discussing the ways she is working to challenge him. She is doing as well as she can in this.
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Reading came easily to me, so when we had the book-reading contests, they were also focused on how many books, not how many minutes. We'd make those paper chains of how many books one had read. I never had the longest chain, but I read the most challenging books.
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When I was growing up, reading was not very valuable. My parents read the paper on a daily basis but rarely cracked a book outside of that. I didn't get the reading bug until 9th grade where I had the choice of selecting a "literature" course. I chose Myth & Fantasy where I was introduced into a realm of gods, nymphs, dryads and hobbits. I hated geometry and chose instead to read during class rather than prove theorems. I'm glad I did because that has led me to continue to read for pleasure. Out of my siblings I am the ONLY one who reads for pleasure and outside of assigned reading. I almost missed the best boat in life.
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Second generation geek ftw!
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Just because it's my value, and I am the child and grandchild of avid readers, does not make reading-for-pleasure intrinsically better than other hobbies.
We just treat it like it is, culturally.
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