READICIDE

I....I don't even know where to start when it comes to this book. In a little less than 150 pages, Kelly Gallagher had so many incredible things to say and points to make.

He defines "readicide" as "the systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools" (2). He argues that reading practices of today's classrooms are contributing to the death of reading. By teaching too much to the test, over/under teaching books, and limiting authentic reading experience are all contributing to this idea. On the surface, this idea is sort of appalling. Teachers and schools are failing to support reading? Isn't that like...one of their main jobs? But as the book continues, there's absolutely no doubt that this new word/idea is a very real thing and it has to stop.

It was shocking to me when Mr. Gallagher mentioned the students who didn't know "who" al Qaeda is/was, or the students who couldn't identify presidential candidates. When I was a senior in high school, my government/CWP teacher had nearly every friday set aside to do the same thing. We would walk into class, pick up a news paper, and spend the entire period summarizing 3-5 articles of our choosing. One had to be from the "world news" section, and the others could be our choice but from different sections. We didn't have a choice but to have at least SOME idea of what was going on in the world around us. Similarly, I really liked the idea of the Article-of-the-Week. It's a very simple, yet crucial activity that can help with battling readicide.

It's crazy to know that schools are so desperate for test scores, that they are willing to cheat their students out of a FULL, WELL ROUNDED education just to fib a little on their test scores. Bruce Fuller, professor of education and public policy at UC Berkley, found that schools "lower the bar and design tests that are highly sensitive to slight gains for low achieving students. Progress may be occurring, he notes, but not anywhere near the rate claimed in this report" (111). Emphasis needs to be on helping students achieve individually, not "making sure we aren't penalized for low test scores."

Finally, I loved the "101 books my reluctant readers love to read" list on page 119. I'd love to read some of them myself, even though I consider my self a very eager reader :)