So, when my son was in second grade, his teacher (like many of the other teachers in this school that had a no homework policy) offered the Pizza Hut reading club where if you spent a certain amount of time at home reading, you would earn a free pizza!
I was furious when I learned she was doing this. I immediately sent her an email asking if we could have a conversation. By the way, my son was one of those many second graders whose brain was not yet ready to easily pick up the skill of reading. Reading was effortful and not fun for him as a result. This is not uncommon among 7 year olds, and even some 8 and 9 year olds. More on this another time…
Back to the phone call. I reminded her that the school had a no homework policy and that by implementing this program, she was breaking that policy. It’s important to note there was a little different relationship here than just teacher/parent. I had been a second grade teacher at this school just the year before. This teacher had been a colleague of mine that had actually taken over my classroom when I decided to not renew my contract.
She said she didn’t think it could do any harm for the kids to earn a free pizza as a way to encourage them to read more. It’s been a few years since this conversation, and I can’t quite remember whether I raised my voice. I know I definitely come across as intense when my passion is driving the conversation. My response went something like this, “It DOES do harm. You are reprogramming my child. I want him to love reading, and you are destroying that possibility by dangling a carrot. He’s learning that reading is hard work that’s only worth doing if you get some kind of reward on the other side of that work.”
I know I was putting her in an impossible position. She mumbled something about all the other teachers doing it, but acknowledged that what I was saying was accurate. Unfortunately, she was also putting me in an impossible position. Do I support my 7 year old son’s teacher and play along or do I encourage him to not participate in something his whole class is doing and visibly tracking?
There are so many things wrong with the Pizza Hut reading program that I’m not even sure where to begin. Here are just a few of the most obvious—that may not be so obvious if you’re in the practice of just trusting the “educators”. Don’t beat yourself up if you are one of those people. It’s likely you went through this same system and you learned not to question the “experts.”
1. As already mentioned, children are being reprogrammed. They are losing their internal locus of control through the use of rewards and punishments. They’re not learning for the love of learning but instead cramming content as a result of coercion. You can read more about this in yesterday’s post.
2. Pressure to participate in such a program makes those who are struggling with a skill BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT YET READY TO LEARN IT doubt their ability to ever learn it. This starts to take a toll on the identity as children internalize being “behind” other kids their age. We’ll dive deeper into this one when we look at the insidious concept of “average.”
3. Homework. This one also deserves its own post (or two,) but a quick primer. Homework typically requires that the parent become the enforcer of the school’s agenda. This has the potential to damage the family dynamic and make the child feel even more isolated and confused about why school feels so wrong. If we must have our children in this unhealthy school environment all day, it’s even more important that home be a place where the child is encouraged to engage in self-determination which requires autonomy, competence, and relatedness<–not things many kids are getting at school.
4. There’s probably more, but I’ll end with this one. If you’re a parent, have you ever found yourself at odds with your intuition in your role as the school’s enforcer? I do want my readers to pay attention to how all of these practices add up to a systematic dismantling of our intuition. Can you see how the Pizza Hut Reading Club could contribute to the questioning of one’s inner knowing not only for the child, but for the parent, and even the teacher?
To the parents out there whose second grade children are struggling to read: don’t force it! They’re not ready. Some kids are ready to read at three, some not til they’re twelve. If you don’t make reading a chore or worse yet, a source of pain because it’s amplifying perceived defects, they’ll learn it much more efficiently when they’re ready. Let your child follow their interests at home. Read TO your child about things they love or stories that explore issues he’s currently dealing with or curious about or that just make him laugh.
Forget about the school’s rating—that’s why they scare you into thinking your child is behind, but you can’t worry about that. Take care of YOUR kid and your family’s health. And make sure your child knows there’s nothing wrong with him if his some of his peers are reading faster than he is. This second part is the hard one. Your child is immersed in an environment where he’s got a constant awareness of how he stacks up against his same-age peers. And we wonder why social media has so much power to damage our kids. Comparison is constantly reinforced and made high stakes in the school environment.
Stay attuned to YOUR child. As much as your child’s teacher may want to best serve your child, you know him better than anyone. YOU are the expert on your child. Listen to your gut, advocate as best you can for him, and don’t let the school bully you. Oops, did I just say that? Hmm, seems like another post topic…
By the way, really take in this photo that accompanies this post. If you’ve been following my writing, this one should be pretty painful. Feel free to comment!
Restoring Justis 