[filchermcurr]

It also doesn't help when we have programs like Accelerated Reader. The original goal of the program, from what I understand, was to encourage reading by rewarding kids for succeeding at reaching goals. Unfortunately, schools decided rewarding was bad and punishing was good. So instead of being an optional reward-driven approach, it became a mandatory part of your grade.

This sort of thing makes kids resent reading. Especially kids, like me, who were given extremely unrealistic goals to meet because they happen to have a high reading level. Plus you're restricted to books that are: 1. Your exact reading level. 2. In your school library. 3. Have A.R. tests available. That, especially in smaller schools, is an extremely difficult set of criteria for meeting a goal. It made me HATE reading because there were no books of any interest to me, but I had to read the most bizarre (and, frankly, age inappropriate) things to meet the goal and get a good grade.

Bring back Pizza Hut and toss A.R. back in hell where it came from.

[skulk]

Even treating it as a purely optional reward didn't work, at least for me. I remember doing AR and treating it like a game -- find the most points-dense book possible in the school library (for me it was The Hobbit, a whopping 70 points), read a summary of it online to get the details and ace the test. All without even opening the book. Well, I actually did try reading The Hobbit but I couldn't make it past the handful of pages without falling asleep.

[constantcrying]

I always hated school assigned reading. I could not really tell you why though.

At the same time I was a very avid reader, who spend a lot of time reading books.