“FOR THERE IS NO JOY IN EDUCATIONVILLE , FOR TEACHING READING HAS STRUCK OUT”

If you know where the title of this essay was derived, then you may have been exposed to the poem “Casey at the Bat” in school.  “Casey at the Bat” is one of America’s beloved poems that used to be taught joyfully in the schools.   Funny, I don’t remember the teachers using a “research-based,” scripted teacher's manual to teach “Casey.”

Teaching literature should  convey joy, excitement and love of literature. Without these elements, how else will children connect to literature? 

From what I have heard and observed from many teachers the joy of teaching literature is being sucked out of the classroom as schools follow scripted “research-based” methods.  

Ask a friend of mine, Mrs. Gail Pearlcroft, a teacher with over 30 years experience about teaching literature.  “There’s no joy,” she said.   “There’s no excitement.  We’re being asked to robotically follow scripts.  Any deviation is reprimanded and frowned upon.   We have actually been told NOT to read anything, including poetry, to the children that it is not part of the sacred research-based series we are forced to use in the school.  Even most of the poems in the program aren't even real poems with poets names attached to them. Rather, they are composed by the company.  It's very sad.”

Mind you, as a psychologist specializing in dyslexia and learning disabilities, I greatly value a “bottom-up,” skills–based approach to teaching children how to decode and read more fluently.  However, decoding instruction should not be confused with literature instruction or teaching reading in the broadest sense. 

Decoding and fluency are skills that contribute to reading.  Methods taught to struggling readers that teach decoding and fluency have utilitarian value.  THESE METHODS ARE NOT TEACHING LITERATURE.

Research should guide instruction and interaction with children, not hold teachers hostage.  When the joy is taken out of teaching and the oxygen has left the room, then what is left? 

Schools rightfully should look to the research evidence to help them make decisions.  Removing the teacher’s personality, joy and enthusiasm, though, will lead to boredom and disconnection.  Good teaching is an art that involves many intangibles.  Once these intangibles are devalued, then much will be lost.

There will be no “joy in Mudville, for mighty Casey will strike out.”

Tags:  Struggling learners, Research in Education, Learning & Reading Disabilities