Embarrassing children who don't read at home

[Pipistrella]

I'm not sure yet as I haven't had a response from school (have only just been told and emailed to check) but according to my Y4 child, his teachers are operating a policy of reading out a list of the children who did not read four or five times at home during the week, to the whole class.

The policy is already taking place in a different class (same year) and his teacher said they will be adopting it presently as well.

I think this is wrong on so many levels that I don't know where to begin.

It humiliates the children
It is often not the children but their parents who make the difference between home reading and not
It is desperately unfair on those who are not in a position to do this

I hope he has got this wrong but in the meantime, is this something other schools do and thus I'm going to look like an idiot for mentioning it?

Oh yes and the policy is called, apparently, 'Name and Shame'. So it is designed, if this is the case, to humiliate them.

Mine is the same - very much wants to comply and not get into trouble.

I still haven't heard anything which tells me, I think, that it was true and that there is going to have to be either backtracking or a coherent defense of the policy in place before he responds.

Really disappointed actually - I hope it is something they thought of trying and that they realise what a stupid idea it is.

I've had an answer and it isn't very good.

It's basically flannel and tries to put it on the children themselves. I will paraphrase to avoid directly quoting.

He says that the school places much importance on reading at home.

Apparently the children love the competitive aspect of this (something I was not aware of) and the classes like to compete to have the most 'reliable' readers. This is news to me.

He says he has spoken to the teachers, and according to them, it's true that some of the children have been getting too competitive and asking the teachers to name and shame those who don't read.

Apparently 'this is done by having a quiet word with the child' (how is that naming and shaming them?)

He qualifies this by stating that occasionally 'this does come out in the form of banter'.

I don't even understand that last sentence.

He assures me that my own child will not be singled out or humiliated in front of other children.

I have responded stating the story as I was told it, in detail, and asking that he checks he has been given the full story because in ds's version it was the teachers who instigated it, not the children.

I'm steaming.

Oh good grief. So basically the system rewards the best readers, whilst quietly humiliating the ones who can't get the help at home. I'm not in favour of making reading a competitive sport as the ones who read well will do it anyway, and it actively discourages the ones who can't - unless there is a structure in place at school to assist them.

There are so many other ways to get reluctant readers reading even without support at home - lunchtime clubs, books available to swap, reading to older children or adult volunteers, poems taped up in the toilets - why does everything have to be a competition?

Ds's school give out house points for every book someone has written in their diary, so usually I manage to scribble a.couple booktitles a week. They also give out house points with the same randomness as Hogwarts staff, but attempting to reward.kids for trying rather than for having attentive parents - I know they get stickers etc for meeting their personal reading targets and they all get very competitive over meeting targets regularly - even though one kid's target is to read words with -ck and -ed in and another's target is to read a chapter book and write a review.

To be fair, they do have several systems in place to ensure that those who get less support at home benefit from being listened to at school.

There are various clubs and interventions, which is great but I don't think they count towards the 'five a week' thing and therefore are poor defence against the dreaded list. Which sort of defeats the object, if it's to help avoid stigmatisation of children from backgrounds that aren't so condusive to a competitive atmosphere.

I agree - why does everything have to be a competition?

Also my own child does read avidly almost every night, and sometimes even when I have told him to go straight to sleep - but because it is not his school reading book, it doesn't count, so there's not much point my writing it in the book anyway.