When asked to write about my first memory as a literate being, Shel Silverstein comes to mind. My parents read me "The Giving Tree" probably 100 times, at least. Once I had memorized that bright green book cover to cover, we moved on to his collection of poetry.
My second memory comes from my kooky kindergarten teacher, who would make us jump rope every day. She claimed if you could jump rope, you could read...? Anyhow she would read to us out of these books and then we would jump rope, everyday.
I loved learning how to read, and I was a phenomenal speller. In first grade, I would ace my spelling tests we had every week, and just to make sure I got the grade I deserved, I would add little comments to my teacher at the bottom of the page; "I love your blouse today," or "You look so pretty!" What a brown nose, right?
In second grade, my teacher proposed a contest to us. Whoever wrote the best persuasive essay about their favorite restaurant and why, got to go to dinner with her and the two runners-up. I won the contest, and we went to Chili's, and I remember thinking I was the coolest kid that ever walked the halls of Water's Elementary.
Shel Silverstein comes back in to play in third grade, when a friend and I recited the poem "I Cannot go to School Today" at the talent show, and suddenly I wasn't so cool any more.
Accelerated Reader really made me hate reading. Before those dreadful tests, I had loved to read; now I was forced to read every Nancy Drew book ever written to reach a certain amount of AR points. The joy of reading was lost on me. That, accompanied with lazy teachers throughout junior high and high school who would allow us us watch the movies instead of read the books. At the time of course, I thought it was great that I didn't have to spend time reading, but now I feel like it was a travesty to miss out on great books such as "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Great Gatsby" because I had lazy teachers. That, and passing the TAKS test became more important that learning anything of true value.
Now that I am in college, I spend my time reading text books and haven't had much time for joy reading, though I do have an extensive list of books I hope to acquire and read. I'm hoping I will find that love again for reading; without reading tests and lazy high school teachers dictating my consumption of literature, I'm thinking my literate future looks optimistic.
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I think that suffices as a shitty first draft!?
Wow I totally agree with about Mockingbird, Gatsby, and how TAKS became the be all end all of our high school career, pass it or die. I feel like I never got the true meaning or joy from either of the aforementioned books. I felt forced and rushed to read it as fast as possible know a few test questions then it was back to TAKS practice. Add that with teachers who didn't care, had no control over the classroom, and no idea what an open discussion was led to a disaster, destroying reading for many for years to come.
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