Our public elementary school requires 4th-graders to read 20 minutes a day outside of school and list what they have read each week. I understand that they want to promote reading, but it also feels like an intrusion to me. I don't object to specific homework being assigned (read a chapter from the social studies textbook) but am leery of a school's effort to change the general inclinations of a child, which is what they seem to be attempting. I doubt that instituting reading logs changes how much children read when they are older.

I am not going to pick a fight with the school over this, but I wonder what others think about mandatory reading logs.


"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." - George Orwell