Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Grrrrrr....school is driving me insane!

I read a fascinating article (here or on hoagies I think or perhaps on a gifted blog - it was in my "I must absorb all knowledge about gifted kids phase", sort of resembled my DS's immersion in reading at the time LOL)) about reading and early readers which completely rejects the educators views. It said that it is impossible to advance in comprehension, reading or vocabulary without reading the more advanced material. Its exposure which develops growth. I found it interesting at the time because it implied (or stated I can't remember) that it is different from math - maybe the people with math driven kids can speak to this - with math they can spontaneously learn and develop understanding without new input. Essentially that the input comes from their own working on problems. But reading depends on new inputs. Might also be why so many of us find them voraciously reading so often. So then if we keep them only reading the K books or whatever level, how could they ever learn more and appreciate more!!! And how many more Harry Potter stories were reported of kids who tried it - older and younger than "appropriate" and then continued reading because of it!

I too had one of those librarian stories - at 10 I was reading Harlequin romances!! The librarian refused to let me have them on my junior card - so my dad took them out for me and told her there is nothing she can't read if she wants to - I was so pleased with his defense - until he said - it may be crap but if she wants to read it she can!! LOL. Its so funny now to realize that my dad didn't care that the material might be inappropriate - but it did bug him that he considered it drivel!!! I liked the happy endings, which was funny because I wasn't into princess or anything like that!

DeHe

ROFL

I've been seething about this issue all day. Decided that it was time to do something. Sent emails to the school administrators, school board, local,state, and national representatives. And I intend to go to the next school board meeting and (politely, but firmly) make a scene. There are plenty of people advocating for struggling kids, and not enough for advanced kids - which is why they get no attention whatsoever. It's about time to do something about it. Don't know if it will help at all, but dang it, I'm going to try my best.

Good for you! Restricting kids reading does nothing but encourage them not to stretch, develop, and grow.

Go Treecritter!

BTW, you may want to search to see if you can find some of the previous AR threads on this forum. There have been a few if I recall. I'm not sure, but they may have info that could be helpful.

Just another thought -- could you recruit that great 1st grade teacher to talk to the librarian about what she would like to see DS reading? Having the teacher play advocate can help with stodgy rule-driven librarians! Keep up the fight!

My brother had a librarian like that in school; she was horrified that he didn't want to read all the kiddie books in first grade, and swore to my mom that he was missing out on lots of great literature. He called mom when his own son was 3 or 4 years old and asked if they could look up that librarian and reassure her that he had finally gotten around to Dr. Seuss and the other "great literature" he had missed when he was a kid!

I think the whole argument is ludicrous. If they want to know what a kid can read, they should open the book and have him try it. If he can read it, he should be allowed to -- assuming there is no "content" issue with the parents. How hard is that?

My daughter ran into this also. AR points are important to them and "getting their points" should be encouraged - otherwise when they get older, you will be in huge fights with your child to complete work.

However, going to the public library and checking out real reading material is great.

There are ways to accomplish both goals - if you child is a reader.

My daughter's Lexile scores were so high in sixth grade that there were absolutely no books in the library for her. I asked that she is able to read what the other students are reading in order to be able to discuss books with other students. Otherwise, she had to read only textbooks.

There is just a point where a student can read almost anything and other ideas have to be considered.

We just went through this....

DS7 read a book called "seedfolk" for LA. He had to write a paper on it. Over the weekend he complained that it was hard to write without the book to use as a reference. So off to the library we went to pick up a copy.

DS walked up to the librarian and asked her to find the book for him (he's too short to use the computers himself)She looked it up and realized that it was listed as young adult. She refused to get the book for him. He came and found me crying. I went back to the librarian and explained that it was a school assignment and that he had in fact already read the book. She didn't look like she believed me. I turned to my son and asked him to explain to her the content of the book. Within a few minutes she was off to the stacks!

I can understand saying no to a little kid, but to his mom?

Shari,
There are folks in this world who will excersize any power they get. Sad you were at the other end of it, but happy she did relent. If this was the librarian from school, I would talk to the principal. If this is a public library, I would look into have a 'special status' placed on card so he won't run into this again.

I also can't believe that they don't have a computer that is low enough to the ground for people in wheelchairs to use...or is your DS still to short for that one?

BTW - Seedfolk was assigned to my son's 6th grade language arts class, and I was so impressed with the book. I thought the language was just poetry.

((hugs to you and your son))
Grinity