The Reading Contest

[mishalak]

A Pointless Story

In 1988 I was in the 5th Grade (about age 11 for those not familiar with the US school system) there was a program called Book It. Each homeroom was competing to see how many books they could collectively read. I decided this was an endeavor worthy of my time as well as a wonderful excuse to read twice as many books as I normally would in a month. So I put myself on a schedule of reading one or two books each day instead of just one every two days.

In a month I read 48 books and though that quite a respectable total. A week later it was announced that our homeroom had won the prize of an ice cream party for having read the most books. When we assembled in the cafeteria to receive our due I was singled out by our teacher, Mr. Planke, he said I should go first in line since I had read the most books. Indeed I had been one of just two students in the entire class who read books for the contest. Between Opal Desarie and myself we had trounced all the other classes combined. (The fact that 52 books were more than all the other classes read said something both about us and the reading habits of 11-year-olds.)

I was the man of the hour and I received a number of "Way to go" type complements from my classmates. I think that was the only time that my reading habit was ever cool in grade school. I do remember wondering if perhaps there would have been more reading if it had been an individual award rather than a collective one, though it was good for me for a while to be the guy who won the prize for everyone.

Comments

Pointless? I'm not so sure...

[ajournalguy.livejournal.com]

I remember those contests. Back in first grade I remember competing in something like that, only to find out that there were a total of about 11 active participants from 6 first and second grade classes. Kind of a shame.
Anyway, 48 books... Way to go, man. ;-)

Re: Pointless? I'm not so sure...

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I'm going to need to make a FAQ about the weird ways I title things. I call all my personal stories about my past "Pointless Stories" since they are apropos of nothing in particular. I'm just writing down my memories because I like doing so.

[armoire-man.livejournal.com]

That rocks! Strange that schools don't figure that stuff out more.

I keep wondering how Maya and reading will entangle each other - she sat in the back of the car on the way to school today "reading" out loud from one of her library books. We've read it to her enough that she's memorized it.

But it gave me visions of a future when she sits in the car reading instead of talking to us, or arguing about what music to play on the radio.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I did that a lot as a kid. Reading in the car even though my mom warned me that I'd get motion sick. I never did.

[ajournalguy.livejournal.com]

Well that was silly of her. If you never did, why would she keep warning you?
Last I heard, scientists figured they knew why reading in a moving vehicle makes people sick: the conflicting information sent to your brain by your eyes, which say you're not moving, and the rest of your body, which says you are. What they couldn't quite understand was why the rest of us CAN reconcile this information sufficiently to read and still feel OK. Does anyone know whether further research has been done?

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Well I think she had the problem herself and thus was afraid that I would eventually cause a mess in the car. She did stop warning me after about a year.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I never did either, but the thing they threatened me with wasn't motion sickness, it was getting lost. After the first couple of years in which I just immersed myself in a back seat full of words, my parents disallowed reading for trips of under thirty minutes' duration. They were probably right about my not knowing how to get to the mall, but think of all the books I could've read.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

All our trips were long; we lived 45 miles outside of Denver. I never had trouble getting lost in Elizabeth, as I knew all the little local territory on foot very well. I did not get lost outside it because I can remember any route I take without any trouble. I would regularly go on long rambling walks away from my Grandparents' houses in San Diego and Denver and find my way back without any trouble.

Can relate...

[e-mc2.livejournal.com]

My final year of High School I was placed in some absurd remedial reading class due to a lack of credits for me to graduate coupled with the fact it was the only class available.

The first day we did a test to see what our reading levels were at. At the end of the test we all announced our numbers. I was several hundred words a minute above to next fastest reader in class. The teacher made me sit there and in front of the whole class do it again, by myself. I clocked in at the same speed, needless to say I tested out of the class and took the hour as an extra "off-hour".

Reading habits of 11 year olds is bad, but the fact that these kids were 16-17 is disturbing to me.