To not want to sponser DD to read a book she'd read anyway?

[thefuturesnotourstosee]

DD has come home from school with a sponsership card from Readathon. Apparently she has to read a book and collect sponsor money from family and friends for doing it.

She loves reading anyway and spends half her time cuddled up with a book. I want reading to be a pleasure to her not a chore which it will become if she is being sponsored to do it. She raises money for charity in other ways (e.g. she's doing race for life). AIBU to think sponsoring children to read a book they'd read anyway is a bad way to raise money and takes the fun out of reading?

(I will end up sponsoring her something but there's no way I'll be asking wider family and friends too as I think its actually a rubbish idea)

Dons hard hat and prepares to be flamed

Surely its the same for the Race for Life - why sponsor her to do exercise she should be doing anyway? That would be making exercise a chore, according to your logic.

So she gets sponsored to read a book and you think it will make reading into a chore? What does she think about doing it, seeing as its not actually about you.

She will do Race for Life at a particular time and place - she is missing something else to do it so she wouldn't be doing it anyway. Its different IMHO.

It's not really, she is raising money for charity by doing something in both cases.

Is it for a good cause? Are you against the organisation, maybe thats why you feel this way?

if she's reading a book anyway then what's the problem? It would only be a chore if you were forcing her to read it. Sounds like an easy way to make money to me.

YABU My son has this too but he won't read so this is a good opportunity for him to do so. Should they just give the form to reluctant readers then as the others would be doing it anyway?
Why don't you get her to read a book she wouldn't normally read? Sponsor her for making wider choices in her reading?

Lots of kids don't read at home, the school are just trying to get them to do so. Like loads of school stuff, you just have to go along with it.

If reading one book as part of a sponsored event is enough to turn her view of reading from pleasure to chore, then your view that "she loves reading" must be wildly misplaced.

Perhaps that needs attention rather than what activities are chosen for sponsored events.

Lilac that's actually an excellent idea. I may take her to the library tomorrow and encourage her to pick out something she'd never normally read. (She likes Enid Blyton, JK Rowling, Rainbow Fairies (yuck) and various books about animals normally)

I don't get your logic, she spends half her time reading; the book in question is one she'd read anyway... How would raising money for charity whilst reading it turn reading into a chore?

I organise a Readathon at my school and it mostly attracts keen readers - we get them to set themselves a target for how much they will read in a set amount of time to encourage them to read more. We don't make them get sponsors though as there are lots of financial demands on parents with charity things at school, trips etc so we ask them to do the reading and collect money if they can? Seems fairer to me?

I agree with you, actually. I think turning reading a book into a sponsored 'event' denormalises reading. I wouldn't say that it turns it into a chore, necessarily, but for a school to promote the idea that reading a book is some high-five worthy achievement is a bit worrying.

Obviously it's great that the school is doing something special to encourage reading, and I hope it works for some kids, but I don't like the air of it being a 'one-off'. It's really up to the school to find ways of making reading a normal, everyday activity for kids.

As other posters have said, it's a school thing that you kind of have to go along with, but I agree that it's a rubbish idea.

Readathon is a large, well established charity, so it isn't 'the school' doing anything. It raises money for really good causes and has been going on in since 1984.
YABU for criticising it, I am an English teacher as well as a parent and can only see good in it. Your view is seriously odd, I'm sorry

There's a spare 'in' in there - take it out yourselves!

cardibach - thank you. Please will you tell me based on your English teaching experience what the benefit of this scheme is for an enthusiastic 7 year old reader?

I can understand there may be some benefit for reluctant readers but I'm struggling to understand how it benefits children like DD. She's happily read 15 books including a book about cats, one about space, one about bees as well as a pile of fiction and noted them all down on her card. The thing is she would have done it anyway. Now we have to go through the embarrassing process of asking people to sponsor her for something that would have happened regardless. I just don't understand.

She won't do race for life regardless - there is considerable planning and effort involved. She didn't raise £40 for the children's hospital last month by selling her old toys regardless - again planning and effort. Surely if you're going to sponsor someone for something it should involve some effort on their part?

We will pay up but I feel very unhappy about it as it seems such a pointless exercise. However maybe you can make me more comfortable by explaining the benefits. I'd be very grateful if you would actually

In a way it isn't meant to benefit your DD, but the sick children the money is going to. The project does have some payback, though, as it raises the profile of reading and makes it more acceptable to the less keen readers. Your DD can only benefit from a more positive reading environment. Are we only supposed to do things which benefit us directly now?

Is your concern more about reading becoming a chore rather than a joy? If so I can kind of see what you mean, it's like when vegetables are presented as something you have to eat to be allowed dessert. I think there are bigger battles though and the charity is worthwhile.

My experiences at school of a "readathon" were dire. I was an avid reader around age 11-12 and would try to tackle stuff during the readathon that stretched me, like 'Jane Eyre'.

But the prize for reading most books always went to the boy who read lots of short books like "Choose your own adventure" ones (remember those?).

Yes, they help children who ordinarily wouldn't read much, but otherwise it should be quality, not quantity, and fostering enthusiasm for books and reading, surely?

I agree with tinbox, this isn't just pointless it's actually damaging because it makes out that reading a book is a big deal when it should actually be a normal part of life. I can see why some might say it's beneficial to deprived kids whose parents haven't encouraged them to read, but there are ways of dealing with that without potentially damaging the attitude of other kids to reading.

I'm not looking forward to when my kids start bringing home sponsorship forms for useless/selfish events like reading a book or running. It's easy to turn down an adult looking for 'sponsors' for this nonsense but your own kids who are too naive to realise the event has nothing to do with charity? hmmm...

YANBU.

Things like this from schools really irritate me, and I'm generally quite big in charity.

Children doing these sorts of things aren't raising money, they are simply being told to ask their parents, grandparents etc for money, which is an entirely different thing.

Charity stops being charity when it's forced IMO. Charity work, including fundraising, should be done by people that want to give to that charity. It should not be done by pressuring children and parent through schools just because one charity has had the cheek to approach a place of education as an easy target.

What CloudsAndTrees said - I loathe forced charity giving, which is exactly what kids sponsorship through schools is, and I refuse to do it.

Resist enforced fundraising for officially "approved" Good Causes! Choose good causes of your own. I do not believe that this has any real educational value and is yet another way of diverting attention away actual teaching.