Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Books In Classrooms

Camille at Book Moot pointed out this great comic strip from For Better or For Worse.

I LOVE books, all kinds, all types. But I fear books being used in classrooms, for just the reason set forth in this strip.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sigh....it doesn't have to be this way. Unfortunately, there will always be teachers who have no feel for literature or how to communicate an appreciation for it to children. As long as teaching in the US is perceived as something that can be done by the book, following standards, preparing for tests, putting skills first, and so forth you will find situations like this one.

What I find so sad about this comic is it simply reinforces the prevailing sentiment in this country of those of us in the classroom as hapeless, lousy, useless teachers. We aren't all like that. It doesn't have to be all like that. But it will take a paradigm shift to change the way the profession is viewed.

Monica

Liz B said...

I come from a family of teachers and I respect the profession. What floored me in college: the number of education majors who didn't read but "loved kids" so wanted to be teachers. That, and the attitude that "if you're smart you don't have to be a teacher anymore." Teachers need more respect; and included in that is recognizing what is important about teaching. A vocabulary test on the words in a novel -- isn't important. Insipring love of reading and learning? Very, very important. I wish my niece & nephew lived close enough so that you could be their teacher!