This poor kid! Grrr!

[Gina B]

http://www.news10.com/story/2319754...ibrarian-wants-him-to-step-down-as-top-reader

I hope he goes back to the library without feeling bad, or at least a great bookstore calls and gives him a big fat certificate for books to read.

Siiiiiigggggghhhhhhhh

Why do people have to be so jerky and take things from kids and try to justify it? :BangHead:

 

[Aaron]

Doubt his reading material was of any merit, otherwise he might have been inspired to put down the books and build a tree house or catch frogs or crawdads or build a camera or anything besides hide in the corner of his little fantasy world.

 

[Aaron]

How much you wanna bet this kid in the near future wants to change his gender identity?

 

[Sapper Woody]

Wow. Hate much, Aaron? Some kids like to read. I loved to read as a kid. I got started with "The Hardy Boys" when I was nine. I would read several of them a week. My dad would take me to used bookstores so I could look for some to complete my collection. It wasn't until I was in 8th grade that I started playing any sports. Now, I'm a SGT in the Army, done 24 months of deployment time.

My point is, just because someone likes to read instead of perform physical activities does not make the effeminate. Sports, athletics, they go away as you get older. But what you learn and read stays with you.

 

[Aaron]

Seven "books" a week?

Ain't healthy or smart.

 

[Sapper Woody]

Seven "books" a week?

Ain't healthy or smart.

I'd love to see your source on that. Without a source, it's just an opinion. And a wrong one at that. People who read expand their vocabulary, and increase their ability to comprehend new ideas.

 

[Gina B]

They teach you HOW to build those tree houses and all about those frogs you catch!

Aaron, I try to understand you but it's so hard. I got mocked so much as a kid by those with your attitude. One of my favorite things to do as a kid was climb a tree. Always outdoors, but I also loved knowing everything about those outdoors and everything I saw in them and that inhabited them and the people who made fun of me for it. I learned it from books. Nature books, story books, history books, you name it. I had to pretend not to know stuff, not talk about it, not have decent discussions with people because they'd rather joke about frog pee than frog classification.

WHY? Now that there's someone obviously here with that mindset, please answer the question I've had since childhood.

Why? Why does it bother you? Do you realize everyone is better at different things? Maybe you're better at building a treehouse and someone is better at figuring out how to save you if you fall out of it? Both are "healthy" talents, both required being smart, but one required reading a lot of books.

 

[Aaron]

My posts lay no blame on the fifth-grader whatever. It is my judgment on the merit of the reading material, the nurturing he is receiving and the effects it will have.

63 fifth-grade reading level books in less than 9 weeks is no real accomplishment in and of itself, and the tendency of news organizations to sensationalize and magnify tiny, inconsequential and banal statements to the level of scandal compels me to assume the verity and insight of the "offender" and doubt the normality of those "offended."

Mowing the lawn is a better education.

 

[Don]

Mowing the lawn is a better education.

Agreed. God forbid that reading might give us imagination and creativity to create something like electricity, or even lawn mowers.

 

[Sapper Woody]

63 fifth-grade reading level books in less than 9 weeks is no real accomplishment in and of itself

I agree. Unless you're a fifth grader. Which he is. And you have no clue about his other activities. Maybe he does play outside, too.

 

[Aaron]

Agreed. God forbid that reading might give us imagination and creativity to create something like electricity, or even lawn mowers.

Ergo my first post. What creative or adventurous activity in which he is engaged affords the time for the obsessive reading of banal or otherwise non-meritorious children's "literature." (And I violate the term "literature.")

(Hey, I've seen summer reading lists from public libraries.)

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

I read 20-30 books a summer, played little league baseball, had a lawn mowing service when I was 10, and when I got to junior high (that's what they called it in those days) I kept reading, found sports (which I'd been reading about as well as playing), like football, basketball and track (they didn't have baseball in school -- took spring too long to get there in north Missouri) and lettered in all three in high school while running a hay crew every summer. And I still read 15-20 books a summer. Went on to be an army helicopter pilot because, from among those many books, I developed an overwhelming desire to learn to fly.

So stuff it, Aaron. Your attitude stinks.

 

[Mexdeaf]

If more kids spent time reading there would be a lot less crime.

 

[Deacon]

What a knuckle head! The librarian should have broken up the prize into age groups so that there would be multiple winners.

Either that or just wait the kid out - he will not be around forever - he'll move on to college.

Rob

 

[Aaron]

I read 20-30 books a summer, played little league baseball, had a lawn mowing service when I was 10, and when I got to junior high (that's what they called it in those days) I kept reading, found sports (which I'd been reading about as well as playing), like football, basketball and track (they didn't have baseball in school -- took spring too long to get there in north Missouri) and lettered in all three in high school while running a hay crew every summer. And I still read 15-20 books a summer. Went on to be an army helicopter pilot because, from among those many books, I developed an overwhelming desire to learn to fly.

So stuff it, Aaron. Your attitude stinks.

Double or triple your reading and you've matched him. Still have time for sports and lawn-mowing?

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Double or triple your reading and you've matched him. Still have time for sports and lawn-mowing?

Sure. No problem. You have little confidence in the ability of kids to be motivated, I gather. Also, you failed to assimilate that the books are what gave me the dreams I turned into reality.

My comment about your attitude stands.

 

[A Penny Saved]

Reading is my primary way of learning, and I just happen to absolutely love it. Reading has been the doorway to everything else I enjoy, from ballet and gymnastics to gardening and writing for a school paper. I'm an 8th grader, but I've been an avid reader since at least the 4th grade. Boys are not wimpy or effeminate just because they prefer the performing arts or reading over sports. Andjust because I do gymnastics doesn't make me a tomboy. Stereotypes. Suffer the little children to READ!

Penny

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Reading is my primary way of learning, and I just happen to absolutely love it. Reading has been the doorway to everything else I enjoy, from ballet and gymnastics to gardening and writing for a school paper. I'm an 8th grader, but I've been an avid reader since at least the 4th grade. Boys are not wimpy or effeminate just because they prefer the performing arts or reading over sports. Andjust because I do gymnastics doesn't make me a tomboy. Stereotypes. Suffer the little children to READ!

Penny

Amen, Sister Penny! Preach it to the unbeliever!! :thumbsup:

 

[Aaron]

Sure. No problem.

Yeah. Right. :rolls eyes:

Be mad at me all you want. The amount of reading in the time allotted is obsessive. You all are the first to judge Catholic monks, and they're devoted to prayer, the Scriptures and acts of charity . . . but let a 5th grader absorb excessive quantities of humanistic hogwash, and you wet yourselves.

Like I said in my first post:

Doubt his reading material was of any merit, otherwise he might have been inspired to put down the books and build a tree house or catch frogs or crawdads or build a camera or anything . . .
​

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Be mad at me all you want.

Who said I was mad? I'm just making a statement based on a badly thought-out post.

The amount of reading in the time allotted is obsessive.

Seems to me I recall that all the founding fathers were "obsessive" in the same way. And they still had time to create a new country.

You all are the first to judge Catholic monks, and they're devoted to prayer, the Scriptures and acts of charity . . .

Now you're putting words in our mouths. I don't recall ever "judging" the time monks spend in prayer, the Word, and acts of charity. In fact, I applaud them. Overly sensitive, ever?

Like I said in my first post:

Doubt his reading material was of any merit, otherwise he might have been inspired to put down the books and build a tree house or catch frogs or crawdads or build a camera or anything . . .
​

And like I said in my first post:

"So stuff it, Aaron. Your attitude stinks."​

Again, not mad. Just a statement.