I recently ranted on LinkedIn about my youngest child’s school using attendance awards to encourage children to achieve 100% attendance. You can read that if you want my views on that particular bit of educational nonsense, but this rant is not about attendance.
This is about reading.
More specifically, it is about how a well-intentioned reward system managed to take something joyful, meaningful and personal, and turn it into a badge-chasing exercise.
When Reading Became a Quest
My youngest used to be an avid reader. Properly enthusiastic. The sort of child who would disappear into books because she wanted to, not because someone had built a laminated progress chart and started handing out shiny things.
