There is a phenomenon on Facebook. Friends (and I!) not only post photos of our children in silly or downright adorable poses, but we also use the virtual interface as a means of sharing our children’s “talk” – what’s coming out of their mouths that give us a glimpse into their wackiness, uniqueness, smarts, maturity, or cuteness. We can capture a moment of time in our children’s sense-making of the world, and share it with our virtual pals on Facebook. We are putting ourselves and our kids into Cyberspace for people to get to know better…even if there are still some things about ourselves (and our kids) that we want to remain private.
A similar phenomenon happens in the world of Reading Instruction in schools. Teachers and districts choose to share some things about their students’ reading development, while leaving out other aspects of it. In today’s era of accountability, schools are also mandated to share snippets of their students’ reading development with the public. But there’s also a significant difference: with public statements about our kids reading, we’re encouraged to talk about how well they’re reading, including their supposed “reading level.” Gone is the encouragement of wackiness and uniqueness, maturity or cuteness in terms of how they interact with the “printed world.”
One of the most dangerous myths about learning to read is that it is a natural process. Another myth is that one’s reading ability reflects one’s intelligence. If someone stinks at reading, then he or she must be pretty darn stupid, or at least “slow” and borderline incompetent, right? Absolutely false. These pernicious myths end up putting undo pressure on our kids to excel and, unfortunately, often lead them to fake their way through reading assignments in school.
Prominent reading researchers asked a middle school boy a simple question – “Would you like to try specific reading instruction that would help you recognize and understand words better…understand what you read?” His answer was telling:
“….but can you do that without my friends knowing about it? If so, I would love to learn my letter sounds again and learn how to pronounce words right. It would be good if I could figure out what words mean and could figure out what those stories mean” (McCray, Vaughn & Neal, 2003, 26).
Why is it so horrible for this child to engage in a different type of reading instruction in school…one that fits his reading needs at the time? Because of his friends, or more aptly his concern about his friend’s knowing about his struggles with reading. There are some things we hear our kids say that hurt so much – that we want to put an end to with our magic wand. If only Facebook was a vehicle by which we could talk more about the wackiness of reading printed text…..?
