|
If the other kids are dropping out because they don't have a chance to "win" what are very, very nominal prizes, then they aren't doing it for a love of reading either. This brings up an entirely different issue of kids who have to have their reading incentivized. Would Tyler still read 63 books if there were no contest at all? I argue that the answer is likely yes. The library assistant points out that they boys are regulars at the library year round. Would the children who drop out because they can't beat Tyler read at all if there were no contest to begin with? These are separate problems with separate solutions, but either way the librarian was out of line in her comments to the press.
As an educator, I am appalled that a library official would not chose his or her words more carefully in speaking to the press. She might as well have been Severus Snape taking points away from Griffyndor for Hermione being an "insufferable know it all" in the Harry Potter series.
I have to heartily agree with the OP. "When everyone is super... the no one will be."
|