Boy kicked out of reading competition for reading too much.

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Oscar Namechange
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Boy kicked out of reading competition for reading too much.

Post by Oscar Namechange »

Boy Kicked Out Of Reading Competition Because He Reads Too Much | Liberals Unite

Credit to Snooze for this article.

Is this making the next generation a bunch of whiners that we have to pander to should they not be rewarded for coming last?
At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. R.L. Binyon
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Boy kicked out of reading competition for reading too much.

Post by Snooz »

Like I said on FB, I can understand the librarian's concern if the kid wins year after year but that's an easy enough fix... make any previous winners ineligible. Gold stars used to mean something back when I was in elementary school because it took work to earn them.
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Boy kicked out of reading competition for reading too much.

Post by Oscar Namechange »

A child like that should be encouraged to the hilt not made to feel guilty that others can't keep up. If anything, he's an example of what can be achieved and they seem to have lost sight of that concentrating more on the whiners.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. R.L. Binyon
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Boy kicked out of reading competition for reading too much.

Post by LarsMac »

If the kid is reading that much, then he should be encouraged to get out and do more outdoor activities.

Holing up indoors with a book is nor better, really, that holing up in front of the TV, or with computer games.

Well,..., maybe a little better, if the stuff he reads is good material.

Sorry, but I think contests like this are of little real merit.

But Snooze's suggestion of previous winners being ineligible seems to resolve the problem.

And, what kind of books is this kid reading, anyway?
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Boy kicked out of reading competition for reading too much.

Post by Snooz »

I remember one of my grade school teachers asking us to keep a list of all the books we read over summer... no contest or anything... and she had the gall to ask if I had actually read all the ones I listed. Why would I lie about it, there was nothing to gain? I just loved reading. I remember how devastated I was after reading Black Beauty.
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Boy kicked out of reading competition for reading too much.

Post by Saint_ »

1. Life is competitive. You have to compete for jobs, housing, salaries, and even mates. Cut down a tree, build a bridge, and get over it. Having someone excel no reason to cancel a contest. Just the opposite.

2. It is an easy fix. Just give a prize to each grade level. The kid will only be able to win his age group leaving the other groups free for other children. The teacher who wants to cancel the contest is a maroon.

3. I somewhat agree that too much of anything is a bad thing. It's true that a young person should be outside getting exercise and interpersonal skills in equal proportion to reading. That said, we don't know the kid's reading speed, nor do we know the size and difficulty of the books he's reading. Sci-fi short stories I devour, Dante Aligheri takes much more time.

He may have been able to finish that many books and still have time to do plenty of other things. I can easily read that many books over summer break just by reading a little in the mornings (what else you gonna do on the pot?) and a little in the evenings before sleep.
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Boy kicked out of reading competition for reading too much.

Post by along-for-the-ride »

I'll never forget this. In fifth grade, our teacher had a game for us students. She would read the first line of a classic book, and the student would raise his/her hand to name the book the line came from. Well, it was yours truly who named most all of the books correctly. Now, I have never considered myself a "book worm". I did enjoy reading, but I also enjoyed playing outside, riding my bike, playing with board games and dolls, etc. I also enjoyed watching TV. So I was startled to have known which book the first lines were attributed to.

Are first lines really that memorable?
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Boy kicked out of reading competition for reading too much.

Post by Saint_ »

along-for-the-ride;1434384 wrote:

Are first lines really that memorable?


Yep! There's a reason classic books are classic:

"Call me Ishmael"

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"
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Boy kicked out of reading competition for reading too much.

Post by Oscar Namechange »

My brothers boy plays for the local football team under 11's. Most of them are 7 years old.

Yet the team manager every match when writing his report of the match for the parents must and has to Include every child In the write up.

My brother sends me the match reports via e mail when my nephew has scored a goal and we have noticed the format. He plays down the child that has excelled and bigs up the kid who did s.hit for making ' a valuable contribution'.

It's a job I wouldn't want as my brother Informs me that It gets very vicious especially some of the parents kicking up If they feel their little Johnny has been sidelined.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. R.L. Binyon
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Boy kicked out of reading competition for reading too much.

Post by Snooz »

Jesus, at seven years old? Many kids don't have much coordination at that age.
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Boy kicked out of reading competition for reading too much.

Post by Oscar Namechange »

SnoozeAgain;1434396 wrote: Jesus, at seven years old? Many kids don't have much coordination at that age.


That's the whole point...such a young age having a game of football and It's turned Into a match report where every child must be mentioned to feed his ego or the ego of the parents.

Too much too young... next time we get a match report, I'll post It... some are hilarious as the poor guy struggles to find something to say about the kid who did s.hit.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. R.L. Binyon
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Boy kicked out of reading competition for reading too much.

Post by Saint_ »

oscar;1434391 wrote: has to Include every child In the write up.


Yeah, I've been seeing this for a decade or so now. It's the "Everyone's a winner" philosophy. I can understand the logic, sometimes if someone is devastated at a young age by failure, they give up, so why not reward everyone?

I'm not completely sold on this idea, though. I can very clearly remember some of my failures in school and life, and after a bit of sniffling, all it did was make me try harder.

And failure has it's value as a deterrent factor. I remember seeing a six-foot tall (2 meters for you metric types) kid in the sixth grade. Someone told me, "That's Jim, he flunked the fifth grade twice." I thought, "No way in Hell am I going to end up like him!"

Worse yet, as we all know, that's not at all the way the real world works. So why would we want to teach the opposite of reality to children? Just to really traumatize them when they leave childhood?:confused: You can seriously fail in life and there's is NO reward for substandard performance.

(Oh...unless you're a Wall Street banker, that is.):thinking:
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Boy kicked out of reading competition for reading too much.

Post by Oscar Namechange »

Saint_;1434400 wrote: Yeah, I've been seeing this for a decade or so now. It's the "Everyone's a winner" philosophy. I can understand the logic, sometimes if someone is devastated at a young age by failure, they give up, so why not reward everyone?

I'm not completely sold on this idea, though. I can very clearly remember some of my failures in school and life, and after a bit of sniffling, all it did was make me try harder.

And failure has it's value as a deterrent factor. I remember seeing a six-foot tall (2 meters for you metric types) kid in the sixth grade. Someone told me, "That's Jim, he flunked the fifth grade twice." I thought, "No way in Hell am I going to end up like him!"

Worse yet, as we all know, that's not at all the way the real world works. So why would we want to teach the opposite of reality to children? Just to really traumatize them when they leave childhood?:confused: You can seriously fail in life and there's is NO reward for substandard performance.

(Oh...unless you're a Wall Street banker, that is.):thinking:


I was a trouble shooter years ago for a company with 42 branches. We had a divisional manager who hired the marketing managers for each branch. You had two types, the fiercely competitive, errrrr me... and those who didn't give a toss as long as their basic salary went In the bank each month.

Leads and sales were dropping In every branch, a real downward spiral and I remember having a long meeting with him where I tried to get him to understand that you can not make people competitive. They either are or they are not.

I put It to him that the reason for the downward spiral In leads and sales was his fault for accepting s.hit results from the non competitive types. He had lowered the barr so that bonus's were more easily achievable which In turn had a detrimental effect on the workforce performance...

He said ' but hang on, If I don't make bonuses easier to achieve, they'll get fed up and leave'... my reply was ' Then they are not worth having'
At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. R.L. Binyon
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