Since when was reading a competitive activity?
Comparisons with sports teams and stars are inappropriate as the aims of sporting competitions are different. The idea of a race is to find the fastest runner, it would clearly be ridiculous to ban Usain Bolt from Athletics for winning too often.
But the purpose of the reading programme is to encourage children to read. Imagine you're a not-especially-enthusiastic reader in Tyler's peer group. You're not going to be inspired to take part, because you know Tyler's going to win regardless. Why not spend the summer playing computer games instead?
So the librarian lady's heart is in the right place - but I think she's fixing the wrong problem. By making the programme into a competition to find the most voracious reader in the class (which is something everyone has already known for years), it dis-incentivises the very children that they're trying to reach: kids who haven't got the reading bug yet.
So rather than banning this child from the competition, I think they need to restructure it entirely. Tackle it the we would tackle an IT problem: determine the specific things they're trying to do, and then build a programme that will achieve those aims. If it includes prizes for those individuals who are "best" at some element of the reading process, that's not necessarily wrong - because one of the project aims might be to give nerdy kids who lack sporting ability something they
can win. But I think there should be a strong element of challenging-but-achievable goals that will encourage everyone to take part. Maybe you get a prize for every x books you read. I don't know.
I'm not going to suggest how the programme should be structured, because it's outside my area of expertise. No doubt there are plenty of existing examples of best practice out there that they could copy.
But part of me still weeps to see reading turned into any kind of competition, however benign. Surely there are enough competitive pressures we put on our children (and ourselves, for that matter) without having to add reading to the list? Couldn't reading be left as a simple pleasure to be enjoyed in the way you see fit? If you want to tear through piles of books at breakneck speed, great. If you'd rather read slowly, savouring every word, that's great too. The point is to open the door to the wonderful world that can be found inside the pages of books, so they'll want to read even when there are no prizes to be had. Because ultimately reading is its own reward.
-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd