"Take A Look," You Said. "It's In A BOOK," You Said.

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Freethinker's Day
Birthday - President William McKinley (25th President)
Anniversary - Seeing Eye (guide dogs)
Admission Day (Kansas)

 

When I was in school, developing one’s reading skills was, to put it mildly, encouraged. From first grade onward, we were greeted everywhere with posters of celebrities holding books—everyone from Alec Baldwin to Xena: Warrior Princess was there to inform us reading was a very useful skill.  Our teachers demanded constant book reports, and every week we would have Library Time. Scholastic ran rampant through our schools like a horde of Vikings through a thatched village, leaving in its wake catalogs, a weird little newspaper, and periodic book fairs. Reading made you smart, everyone told us.  It is cool to read!  For god’s sake, put down those video games and—are you listening?  Please? Animorphs has a plot and cuddly animals and everything! Goosebumps is scary! Well, you like that Power Rangers show, can you at least read a novelization of the episodes?  Okay, just read the blurb under this photo of the rabbit.  Anything? Dammit, kids these days are dumb as blocks.

 

And then there was Read-Aloud Class Time.

 

Now, to understand why I hated Read-Aloud Time so much, you have to understand that all this seemed a little redundant to me, because I was that reading kid. The one in the corner reading while the rest of the class harassed the substitute teacher. The one with the book under my desk during the instructional videos. The one who found a corner of the playground and read through recess.  The one who spent the recesses of sixth grade shelving books in the school library, and then settling down with a book.* To me, book reports were an unnecessary nuisance, taking up time that I could have spent reading another book.

 

And Read-Aloud Time was a nightmare.

 

You may have had something similar in your school.  It went like this: each student had a copy of their Reading Comprehension Book, full of sometimes great and sometimes deadly boring stories designed to impart some literary goodness while honing our sharp skills, and with questions at the end like “Why do you think Reynolds waited until Mom had her back turned before he stole all the cookies she had baked for Mrs. Cratchit?”** That was simple enough—it was yet another of those incomprehensible school things people made you do, and it wasn’t very hard.

 

But the catch to Read-Aloud Time was that you got these books out, and then everyone in the class took turns reading the story aloud.

 

Were you a fast reader in school? Do you remember—do you have any idea—how mind numbingly boring that was?  I didn’t mind that others weren’t as fast readers as I was, but reading aloud forced everyone to go at the pace of the slow readers.  And I frankly would get bored and lose track of the story.

 

So I read ahead. I would often finish the story while the rest of the class was on page two.  I would have understood it all, and it wouldn’t have been at the interminable pace we went at.  But the whole time I was reading, while one of the eight or so Ryans in the class was struggling over the word “through,” I lived in fear. Because I never knew when the teacher would call on me to read the next paragraph.

 

Oh, I tried to pay attention. I kept my finger on the page everyone was on, and frequently paused to listen and see which paragraph they were on.  But inevitably, at some point during Read-Aloud Time, the following conversation would occur:

 

Teacher: Amelia, will you read next?

Amelia: … Uh, hang on.

Amelia: … *goes back to the page they were on*

Teacher: Perhaps somebody who has been paying attention would like to help Amelia out? (Optional) Amelia, I’m going to put your name on the board.

 

And she would, punishing me by embarrassment for “not paying attention” when I was simply reading fast. I tried a few times to protest that I’d been reading ahead, but that got me no sympathy at all. My teacher simply told me to try to stay with the rest of the class, and reiterated that I should pay attention.

 

I could never quite get over that last part.

 

What did I learn in school? I learned that grownups are hypocrites.  And jerks. And they don’t actually value good behavior or reading skills, because when I would finish an assignment before everyone else, I quickly learned that sitting back quietly and pulling out my book would be rewarded with the teacher finding me more busywork while the rest of the class finished the assignment. I got in trouble for being fast.***  And I once wound up in the school psychiatrist’s office because my teachers decided I read too much.

 

And I couldn’t do anything about it, because they knew what was best for me.

 

Something about the injustice of it keeps the anger quietly festering in me until this day.  It’s the sort of thing that makes you wonder how kids stay sane with grownups running the world.

 

 

*It was a legitimate excuse to get out of recess.  I spent years trying to convince my teachers that it was freaking cold and slushy outside and I wanted to stay inside and read, and nobody would let me until I found that the nice librarian didn’t know it was The Rules that I had to go out and get fresh air and socialize with the kids, and let me shelve the books or put contact paper on the new ones and then read until the bell rang. Once again, we see that reading was apparently not as valued as everyone said it was.

 

**If it were a math story problem about cookies it would have also involved two people named Ahmed and Yoshimi.

 

***I’m a pretty fast reader, but I’d just like to point out here that I’m definitely not on par with gondolinchick01, the Human Scanner.  She looks at a page and she’s read it. It’s creepy. I bet she had some run-ins when she was still in public school.

Comments

[cjtremlett.livejournal.com]

My teachers mostly just gave up and let me read since I wasn't breaking anything or hurting anybody. I did get some hassle for not paying attention (because I'd finished the assignment already, and I was reading), but I don't remember it being as bad as it was for you. The read-aloud bits were boring, but I think we usually went around the room in a predictable pattern, so I could prepare.

I do remember one teacher bemoaning the fact that I didn't bother to record everything I read for the "who's read the most" thing. So I did record everything for about two weeks. She sort of freaked out at the fact that I had read that much and she hadn't heard of any of it (she called me on it and I pulled out the books - yes, I know you don't read science fiction Mrs. BoringTeacher. I do. Yes, I do know all those long words and yes, they are spelled that way) and that it pointed out all too uncomfortably that I knew more about a lot of things than she did. She left me alone after that.

[chibicharibdys.livejournal.com]

Dude, exactly the same for me. I'd read whole entire novels while they did a couple chapters during Read Aloud Time. Well, YA novels.

And then I would have to sit in the corner while everyone else did stuff, which was fine with me -- more reading time!

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

At least you didn't have the teacher who would get all offended that you finished so fast and find something else for you to do. ASDFLDGEHOVIHGOJLSE.

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

I recall slouching in my seat during Read-Aloud Class Time and being vicariously embarrassed that some of my classmates were hesitating over words like "which" and "the." No, I am not making that up.

One of my moments of quiet personal triumph in high school was being called upon, during the poetry unit, to read an e. e. cummings poem, and doing so smoothly and without stumbling over his odd line breaks and creative phrasing. When I had finished, there was a moment of quiet, and then my teacher asked me, a little hesitantly, if I'd seen the poem before. I hadn't. It made me feel Very Good and a tad smug.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Did you ever get tempted to shout "IT'S 'WHICH' YOU OAF!" after what felt like five minutes of struggling?

Or, if you liked the kid, did you kinda whisper the word at them and hope they'd hear you telepathically or something?

[die-monster.livejournal.com]

Read-Aloud time is great, I dunno what you're talking about. High School level English read-aloud gave me such gems as "they locked Annabelle Lee away in a /spatula/." Granted, sepulcher's not a common word, but SPATULA. I probably gave myself some obscure form of oxygen-deprivation-related brain damage, holding in those laughs.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

You were nicer than I was. I'd have fiercely muttered "It's SEPULCHER" through clenched teeth.

Today, though, I'm positively cracking up.

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

I too hated these times, for much the same reasons.

Luckily, most of the time I had teachers who sympathized, or at least accepted. I had a science teacher who used to criticize me for reading during class - until I answered every single one of his questions about the material without hesitation. then he let me sit in the back and read. Yay for a Z-last name!

I do remember the teacher and I being the only ones laughing at the dirty jokes in Romeo and Juliet though!

[enigmania.livejournal.com]

Ha, oh yes. I got pretty good at keeping track of where the class was, I don't recall getting in trouble particularly. But I do remember being frustrated really early on that the other kids didn't read *with expression*. And then I got put into gifted and talented streams in grade 4, and in general the teachers from then on were encouraging of self-directed activity.

I lived in the library over lunchtime too. Oh! And once in grade 5 my teacher was all concerned that I wasn't challenging myself in reading level, because I enjoyed reading Zilpha Keatley Snyder books over and over again. So I randomly picked up and read the Odyssey(although I nearly got thrown off by the introduction... god that was boring... and I hadn't yet realized it was acceptable to skip such things), which put an end to those worries.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Oh, gods, yes, the Reading Monotone. Am I HALLUCINATING this punctuation? Are periods and commas INVISIBLE to all but the Chosen Few?!

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

From first grade onward, we were greeted everywhere with posters of celebrities holding books—everyone from Alec Baldwin to Xena: Warrior Princess were there to inform us reading was a very useful skill.

God, I feel old. We had none of that ( I'll spare you the "back in my day" jokes).
It was just Scholastic catalogs every months with more books than I could afford. No one at Scholastic had discovered TV show or movie tie-ins at that point.

When I was able to read (for the curious, I discuss it here), read along time was a nightmare for me too. Prior to that I was excused ( being unable to read and all). After that, nightmare time.

The 1st day of 4th grade, I read my entire history, english, and science books.

Later on in school, word spread that I was able to read and answer questions. We'd watch films, or be discussing something in class and I'd have a SF novel on my desk. I'd get called on and answer the question. Drove some of my teachers crazy, others recommended books.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Was that when they were still reading off papyrus scrolls?

There. This has been the obligatory Back In My Day Joke.

That's a really interesting way to become a reader. Something just clicked, huh? Curious. And lucky for you!

[ishyface.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I hated Read Aloud Time. Maybe I wouldn't have minded so much had the stories actually been good, but... nope. Never.

[blackbyrd2.livejournal.com]

I loathed Read Aloud Time also, although I have to admit that my internal pronunciation of some words might well have benefitted from paying more attention during Read Aloud Time. Well, IF it had included words like those. (Not comprehension, as I knew the definitions and usages, but when you read to yourself, you don't always spend time ensuring that you were pronouncing things in your head the way you should.)
For instance, it was years and years before I actually had the need for the phrase 'faux pas' and I distinctly remember my mortification at discovering the x and s were silent. Somehow I doubt that phrase ever appeared in Read Aloud Time.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I still have trouble with pronouncing things I've only read (darn English!), but they're the sort of things that we didn't cover in fourth grade. I was fairly confident with the vocabulary words we DID get, which were the sort that made me wonder why kids didn't know them yet.

[alexvdl.livejournal.com]

My stepdad likes to tell the story of how we (Mom, Stepdad, sisters, and I) were at a bookstore, and some lady came up to him and asked "Your kids are reading! That's so wonderful! How do you get them to do that?"

My stepdad looked around and saw us all ensconced in chairs at the bookstore, reading books that didn't belong to us. He turned back to the lady, rolled his eyes and said "Get'em to read? Lady, how do I get'em to stop?"

I was definitely constantly getting in trouble for reading during class. All the damn time. Which is funny, because as often as that happened, never once did my mother ban me from books. Which I'm okay with. But, seriously. It got to the point where my teachers wouldn't even argue about it. That might've had something to do with the fact that when they called me about it, and forced me to stop I was obnoxious as hell until they finally let me go back to reading.

I always found that if you raised your hand for every single question that the teacher asked, the teacher would eventually get annoyed and say something to the effect of "Anyone besides Alex, please?" That was usually the point where I would pull the book back out.

[lookingforwater.livejournal.com]

Step one) Purchase books

Step two) Read books to child while child is still a captive audience

Step three - and this is the important one) PUT THE BOOKS WHERE THE CHILD CAN REACH THEM. PERIODICALLY ADD MORE BOOKS, BUT NEVER TAKE ANY AWAY.

Step four) ???

Step five) PROFIT

At least, that was how my mom did it.

[bluetara2020.livejournal.com]

School was hell. Read aloud time was torture.

And yet, somehow, no one ever called on my when I was reading.

Being able to glare seething masses of hatred at someone while being polite (yes ma'am. no sir.) is useful, useful stuff.

They deserved it. They interrupted my reading.

But all of my teachers would do the whole "Who would like to read the Top of page 5, Second paragraph!" I wanted to say: "I've already read it you fool."

I was a scornful angry thing...

Sorry 'bout the deleted comment. I messed up the tag.

[gondolinchick01.livejournal.com]

***I’m a pretty fast reader, but I’d just like to point out here that I’m definitely not on par with gondolinchick01, the Human Scanner. She looks at a page and she’s read it. It’s creepy. I bet she had some run-ins when she was still in public school.

Es la verdad. The other thing I remember was being annoyed in first grade that no one else in the class read with any freakin' expression. When I read, I would actually use the right intonations and punctuation and such and thought it rather odd that everyone else in the class read in that weird, slow-reader monotone.

I never had the same problem with recess, but that was usually because I would bring a book from home and sit out of the way by the bike rack reading it while everyone else ran around and did stuff. No one really called me on it since the parents on playground duty usually had better stuff to do, and anyway, they were my books.

Blasted HTML

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

How could you not do the intonation? The punctuation is RIGHT THERE. Is it visible to only the Chosen Few?! What in buttery goodness is WRONG with these kids?!

One person higher up on this page points out that kids like us were probably loathed because we seriously had no idea why other kids found this sort of thing so blasted hard.

I read at recess with no hassle from teachers, but a lot from other kids. The trouble was trying to convince my teachers that it would be a lot easier for me to read away from the other kids.

Reading Aloud

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

If I hadn't learned to love reading before I got into school, I would have learned to hate it there. Public school mostly teaches kids to hate learning. (This is like making eaglets acrophobic, but go figure.) I never even pretended to pay attention in Read Aloud time. I was reading adult-level books by the time I was in first grade.

*chuckle* The most fun was the time in third grade when I got caught reading _The Two Towers_ under my desk. I had just finished "The Departure of Boromir" when the teacher took the book away from me. She insisted I couldn't possibly be reading that. So I launched into an enthusiastic description -- orcs and arrows and death charges and all -- while the little kids' eyes got bigger and bigger. The teacher handed me back the book, admitted that I was right, and left me alone. (Usually, though, it turned into a big fight, a call to my parents, and them screaming at the teacher.)

Anything that encourages kids to read is good. Let them read whatever they want. Never discourage them from reading. Avoid doing things that make them hate reading. A kid who's reading ahead quietly in class is a kid who doesn't need the reading teacher's attention; save it for the 34 others who are floundering.

Re: Reading Aloud

[lookingforwater.livejournal.com]

....if you couldn't possibly be reading it, why was it under your desk?

I am confused.

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

God, yes. HATE HATE HATE.

Gah, my school years summed up.

[i-blaze-the.livejournal.com]

Every single week in more or less every lesson the class drags on and on and on covering stuff we've either already covered or taking something I'd grasped hours ago and making me repeat it so many times I give up.

Also, fair point about gondolinchick01, I've sent her my works, I've watched her read... now I'm a fast reader, I can demolish books quickly and leave most people behind but she SCARES me with her speed. There's not a book she can't finish in under two days.

[annotated_em]

I got a demerit in fourth grade for reading too much, and then my teacher forbade reading for me altogether.

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

How awful.

[crazykawaii.livejournal.com]

YES! Oh man, I could have written nearly every word of that (except I did like recess). I actually started going through and spelling each word in a desperate attempt to go as slowly as the people reading aloud and I STILL got ahead.

However, after I got in trouble enough times for "not following along" and "not paying attention" they decided that I could be Gifted - which meant that I went to a special room three times a week and got to read an actually good book and discuss things in a slightly more sophisticated manner than "So, What Was That Plot?"

Unfortunately, they timed it so that I would go to Gifted, then come back just in time for reading aloud. UGH.

[shadesofmauve]

Oh, yeah...being stuck in a gifted/talented class where things are actually interesting and fun doesn't do much for your rep with the other kids when you get back, either.

I was in the district talented students program from second through fifth grade. It meant spending two half-days a week at a different school! Whee!

Except...some regular teachers were great. Then there were the ones who marked me down because I didn't finish the Color The Pilgrim worksheet because I hadn't been there when it was handed out - I'd been deciphering codes and doing fake archeology digs and whodunits instead. Don't these kids understand how important it is to COLOR THE PILGRIM?

[yoccuri.livejournal.com]

In fourth grade, I had an Honors English teacher who really pushed us kids HARD to do our best--something I appreciate now, but loathed at the time. I wanted to drop out. So, my mother, the teacher, and I all sat at a table.

The teacher reminded me, "Do you really want to go back to normal English where they can't READ?"

And I've never complained since.

[luinmir.livejournal.com]

Mrs. Farlin! It's true!

[luinmir.livejournal.com]

Mostly, my teachers just accepted I was too smart for my own good--especially after I kept correcting them--and allowed me to do my own thing. I hated read-aloud time though. Hated it. Especially since I always wanted to help them move it the fuck along, and I think I got the reputation of being a know-it-all as a result. Not that I wasn't, but...

The really annoying (and by annoying I mean really cripplingly depressing and confusing) upshot of all this precociousness was when the ADD started kicking in and all anyone would ever say to me was "You're so smart! How come you're not getting all 'A's? How come you're failing? You know, if you just did your work, you'd not be in this mess." And then there came the lying and the depression and the social phobia and all those other fun things.

Anyhow, I remember vividly sitting in first or second grade and being deathly bored while the kids in my class tried to sound out the one-syllable words to some story about a worm. It was printed in huge type on the paper with the two solid lines and the dotted line that was meant to teach you how to write the letters... I wanted to get back to reading Little House in the Big Woods or The Chronicles of Narnia or something.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

You're so smart! How come you're not getting all 'A's?

Amen! Preach it!

While I'd overcome my dyslexia, my dyscalcula (dyslexia but with math) was in full strength and my math teachers usually had fits about me. "Gifted my ass, I'm calling the school board and this and we're going to see about it!"

Nevermind my mom was on the schoolboard...

[kittikattie.livejournal.com]

From first grade onward, we were greeted everywhere with posters of celebrities holding books—everyone from Alec Baldwin to Xena: Warrior Princess were there to inform us reading was a very useful skill.

And the AG Girls! Yay for the AG Girls!

But OH GOD I HATED READING WITH OTHERS. I once got in trouble for reading the whole story AND answering the questions afterwards while Classmate A was struggling through the third paragraph, because then the teacher didn't have 15 minutes of busy work out of me. But then again, I had a lot of drama in school and not all of it was reading. I got in trouble for everything from being left handed to doing my work first to actually reading the books used so we didn't copy off each others papers to ignoreing my busy work and getting distracted in those days before ADD to not using only four dots of glue on my paper gluing (I GOT IN TROUBLE FOR GLUE, DO YOU HEAR ME) to not wanting to do 100 damn math problems for the next hour because the teacher wanted to go have a smoke. I got in trouble for so many things it was loltastic.

Did you ever have grouped reading? Where they grouped you in three or so groups and they were always theme named like the Reds, Blues, Greens/The Blackbirds, Bluebirds, Redbirds/The Suns, Moons, Stars and this was supposed to be so no one knew who the slow kids were but you still always knew who the slow kids were? I mean, it was kind of mean, but on the other hand you were with people on your own level. And you had GIFTED classes! *sparkley eyes*

Though I did once make a bunch of first graders feel horrible when I was 5ish. My grandma was a teacher and I always went to visit her in the summers. And I got out of school long before that school did, so I got about two more weeks of "school." And my grandma stuck me in the class with one of her friends, Mrs. Jackson. Well, when the Super Good Reading group got together for thier 30 minute reading, I wanted to go too, and the teacher knew I could read damn well so she did. And the medium and slow groups were like "WTF The preschool baby is over there with the good kids why!" I tore through those pages about Pig and Dog so fast that jaws dropped. Note that I was 5. The teacher let me read for a while, then let me go sit at my desk and read to myself. I was so cute.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Man, you got in trouble for all SORTS of things I didn't. You win. (Were they seriously still doing that left-handed garbage? My siblings didn't have to put up with that--I'm the only right-hander in my family--but Mom got the full force of the Catholic School nuns.) I was always pissed when I got the extra busywork though, because the busywork was supposed to keep the noisy kids quiet, and I was BEING quiet.

TAKE THAT, FIRST GRADERS. They tried to skip me ahead to first grade once. I'm not sure why they gave up. Hell, I didn't know. I was little.

Yeah, we had the Neutral Named Groups, too. I think it was Sparrows and Robins or something, but we all knew what it really was. And I remember they kept renaming the gifted classes in junior high so that parents wouldn't realize their kids weren't in that class and complain. I think "Access" was my favorite codename.

[chairman-wow.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever had a Reading Aloud Time that warrants the capital letters (but then, I did go to school in Germany until I was eleven, and they were a lot less overbearing than schools in America.) but I do remember people reading aloud during various phases of my school life and being painfully slow and boring about it.

And I know I read under the table (most notably causing me to know absolutely nothing about American History, but quite a lot about the history of Middle Earth as set out in the Silmarillion) and during recess, but no-one ever bothered me about it. I did miss the recess bell a few times because I was so engrossed in my book, but I can't remember ever getting in trouble about that, either. Maybe I was just lucky.

But I'm pretty proud of the fact that, even though I moved to a different country with only basic school-taught knowledge of the language, after a little while I was still reading faster/more than most of the kids in my class in America.

Thinking about it, I don't actually remember reading much English apart from Old Yeller and whatnot they gave us in school. Perhaps I just have to Pokemon games to thank for my English reading proficiency, then. And they say games are bad for kids.

[piper-lee.livejournal.com]

Yes, torture. The worst for me was still having to do this in HIGH SCHOOL, and the kids being just as AWFUL at it. I was always in supposed honors classes, and they still decided it would be great for us to read it out loud. If I ever have to hear someone struggle through Huckleberry Finn or The Crucible one more time, I might go unconcious. I really feel it unnecessary to spend more than one day reading The Crucible to begin with.

your entry title For The Win!!!

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

Uh-huh. I even started out second grade not being able to read at all, due to rather sketchy and disjointed education up until that point. By the time I got out of second grade, however, I was mind-numbedly bored by how slowly and poorly the rest of the class read.

I did get my own back eventually, though. My French teacher once caught me reading under the desk in class... and was all set to blow up at me until I held up the book. It was L'Etranger. In French. And not assigned reading for two more years. Take that, evil Grownups!

[thehappyberry.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I feel really lucky I went to a one room school house for K-6. Sure, I may have had a little stunted social growth, but I got over that in junior high and high school. But, it had its benefits. It meant I got to do English and reading at my own pace since I was the only one in my grade. Or, sometimes I would get to do it with the older kids, until it was realized they were holding me back. Fortunately, it also meant I could do math at my own pace, which is sadly average.

[okelay.livejournal.com]

I came here from metaquotes and I must say, I feel your pain.

I am a fast reader,always have been. I remember wanting to read before I ever learned how. and on first grade,I learned very quickly. Our schoolbooks had short stories usually about animals. I used to start reading and completely ignore the class.

some teachers didn't mind it. mostly my language and history teacher.
my math teacher however, once she'd seen I was done, she'd just give me more to do. it wasn't fair!

but like the language teacher was nice, I often read on my own while other students read aloud and if she called on me she didn't mind if I took my time to find the passage cause at least I could actually read.

This one time, we had to do a history homework on a national hero. I read up on him but for some reason I didn't write a report. probably cause I hated writing by hand,my handwriting is awful. so the day came for the reports and I said I didn't have one but I could recite it. another girl said the same thing. they called another teacher, the inspector, other people. the other girl said "I know Bernardo O'Higgins is the father of our country" and fell silent. I started talking about his entire life and accomplishments.I was stopped before I even got to the good part. they gave an A and never bothered me again.

Some teachers were cool with one reading and not paying attention if you knew the subject,if you were a good student.others weren't. others wanted you to be bored out of your mind.
this happened when I was 7 or 8. I'm 23 now, in uni and it still stands.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a few teachers grasped that you weren't paying attention because if you slowed down you wouldn't even get the story. Others ... not so much. I really hated getting punished for being the fastest done. And it's not like I could slow down. That would be ridiculous.