From the monthly archives: August 2009
NPR is reporting that today is Reading Rainbow’s last day on the air, after twenty-six years. This is, obviously, very sad.
What’s startling and perhaps more sad is part of the reason the show’s broadcast license is not being renewed:
The show’s run is ending, Grant explains, because no one — not the station, not PBS, not the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — will put up the several hundred thousand dollars needed to renew the show’s broadcast rights.
Grant says the funding crunch is partially to blame, but the decision to end Reading Rainbow can also be traced to a shift in the philosophy of educational television programming. The change started with the Department of Education under the Bush administration, he explains, which wanted to see a much heavier focus on the basic tools of reading — like phonics and spelling.
Grant says that PBS, CPB and the Department of Education put significant funding toward programming that would teach kids how to read — but that’s not what Reading Rainbow was trying to do.
“Reading Rainbow taught kids why to read,” Grant says. “You know, the love of reading — [the show] encouraged kids to pick up a book and to read.”
Linda Simensky, vice president for children’s programming at PBS, says that when Reading Rainbow was developed in the early 1980s, it was an era when the question was: “How do we get kids to read books?”
Since then, she explains, research has shown that teaching the mechanics of reading should be the network’s priority.
“We’ve been able to identify the earliest steps that we need to take,” Simensky says. “Now we know what we need to do first. Even just from five years ago, I think we all know so much more about how to use television to teach.”
Research has directed programming toward phonics and reading fundamentals as the front line of the literacy fight. Reading Rainbow occupied a more luxurious space — the show operated on the assumption that kids already had basic reading skills and instead focused on fostering a love of books.
Now, I haven’t watched PBS in a long time, and it’s been even longer since I watched children’s programming. But when I was a child, PBS was the only TV station we were allowed to watch. I learned a lot from PBS shows – from learning to count in Spanish on Sesame Street to learning about math in Square One (I still sing “one thousand times one million, that’s one billion” to myself when necessary) to the enormous amount I gleaned from Bill Nye the Science Guy and 3-2-1 Contact and Wishbone and, yes, Reading Rainbow.
I don’t really object to educational TV teaching phonics or reading skills. Goodness knows our educational system often needs as much reinforcement as possible, especially when parents aren’t around to help. But once children learn to read, they need encouragement to read. Having the skills does not guarantee that children will learn to love books – I remember an NEA survey from a couple of years ago that says that only 50% of Americans read one book in the past year for pleasure. Half. That’s horrifying – an excellent step toward illiteracy, should a totalitarian government ever appear.
Television does well to encourage kids to turn off the TV and grab a book. Knowing how to read does not mean you’ll actually read anything. Shows like Reading Rainbow and Wishbone (at least, back when I watched them) encouraged me to find stories elsewhere, not just on the screen. They also encouraged me to read books with my parents – and we know from research that one of the major indicators of a child’s educational success is whether or not their parents read with them. We are much poorer as a country when we focus on the mechanics, to the detriment of the joy of discovering human culture.
Last spring, I wrote an essay on kitchens in the city for a graduate class. With some small tweaks, it appears today in The Curator.
Two weeks ago we were in the U.S. Virgin Islands for the wedding of two lovely friends. We had a grand time; highlights include excellent West Indian food on St. Thomas and St. John, ocean kayaking, snorkeling for the first time (and seeing everything from sea turtles to starfish to scary coral formations, schools of baby squid, beautiful tropical fish, and even a five-foot-long barracuda sighting), hanging out with old friends and new, and the wedding itself, which was on the beach just before sunset and truly lovely.
And as you probably know, we were in Santa Fe at the Glen Workshop last week. It’s impossible and probably not advisable to blog the entire experience, as it was packed full and very meaningful. But some highlights:
- The opening night’s reception, which started with a downpour which turned into a double rainbow over the not-far-off mountains.
- Getting to spend time with many friends with whom we’d only had brief or Internet-mediated interaction.
- Spending most mealtimes in the surprisingly good St. John’s College dining hall, getting to know people, laughing, brainstorming, and enjoying a whole lot of coffee.
- Andy Crouch’s seminar on making culture, and its participants.
- Singing together during that seminar.
- Taking a trip downtown to the Georgia O’Keeffe and New Mexico History Museums.
- A “free day” trip to the International Folk Art Museum, a somewhat bizarre conglomeration of folk art from around the world.
- Lunch at the Blue Corn Cafe twice (YUM), and dinner at Il Piatto on the last evening of the trip.
- The various talks, lectures, and readings, particularly Andy’s Monday night keynote on what keeps us from working, B.H. Fairchild’s reading of poetry mostly from his newest book, Usher, Barry Moser’s knockout discussion of the essence of art, Lauren Winner’s talk on prayer and writing, and Joel Sheesley’s and Lynn Aldrich’s presentations of their work.
- Debbie Blue’s nightly homilies, which served to remind me of how little a positive theology of the body (rather than a negative, what-you-shouldn’t-do theology of the body) has factored into my religious formation, and how much that ought to change.
- The Thomas Parker Society meeting at the Overstreets’ apartment, which once again reminded me that amazing artistic impulses are to be found in the most unlikely places.
- Walking from Christ Church in Santa Fe back to campus and watching the amazing lightning show.
- Over the Rhine’s closing night concert.
And much more I’m not even thinking of. I’m refraining from naming all the wonderful people we met or connected with because I will of course forget someone and I’d feel bad about that. But suffice it to say: a wonderful experience! And if you hunt on Flickr you can find some pictures from other attendees.
Occasionally, I window shop online. Here’s what I’m loving right now: the “ensemble dress,” from Anthropologie. It’s easy, and it incorporates that top-tucked-into-skirt look that I love but never manage to do in such a way that the top doesn’t continually untuck. Plus, these are really pretty.
