Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Yes, You Can Love Books TOO Much

Heresy, you say?

Hear me out before you brand me a traitor to writer-kind.

With a lot of kids, I'm thrilled when they want to read something that's not required by a teacher. At my last school, we had a small amount of dedicated reading time every day, regardless of what class they were in at that time. Sometimes I had a class of reluctant readers, and any time they didn't put they books away the second reading time ended, I didn't mind letting them carry on a bit.

There are kids at the other end of the spectrum, though. Kids who always want to read. Some of them know how to prioritize. They pay attention to lessons, work hard to get their tasks done so they'll have a bit of free time to read at the end of class.

That's fine by me.

But some kids don't have that self-control. Some will read straight through class unless someone steps in and stops them.

That someone would be me. The big, mean, book-closing teacher.

Forgive me, my fellow bibliophiles, but kids need more than books ... they need math, too. Among other things.

Any suggestions on helping certain students see that need for balance?

2 comments:

Robin said...

gasp, I am one of those readers that needed someone to make me stop-to check in on the world around me- so yes, I agree, in school esp. we need to be reminded that math (or geography) is important too.

How I was "mostly" cured. In 6th grade my history teacher (still not my fav. subject) took my book away-in the middle of a cliff hanger-for an entire week. It was really hard on me, but I learned not to risk reading in class.

Now reading into the night, I still haven't curbed that one.

E.B. Black said...

I never read during class, but I did read instead of doing homework, so I agree, there's such a thing as reading too much. Other Moms were always trying to get their kids to read more and mine was trying to get me to read LESS.

I'm not sure what people can do to help these kids. Part of the reason I did it was because I was bullied constantly and needed that constant escape to handle things. It depends on the kid probably. If the adults had helped me with being bullied, instead of ignoring it, then maybe I would have done better in school and needed less of an escape. My Mom could have also rewarded me for doing good in school by buying me books, but refused to buy me any if I didn't do good. That's all I can think of.