Pay-to-Read Programs Draw More Opposition

Re: “Paying Children to Read Sends Wrong Message About Books,” by Carol Jago (June 11)

I have been in charge of handing out the prizes for the home reading project sponsored by the PTA at El Marino Language School in Culver City.

As common sense would suggest, the same children turn in long lists of books they have read each month and get prizes. They tend to be the students who need help least. Their parents dutifully fill out the tally sheets, and their teachers deal with the paperwork. The money and resources devoted to the project are largely wasted . . . and now the governor wants to get in on the act by bringing the whole project to another competitive level.

We should stock up on loser buttons for the students and schools that don’t qualify.

John Hennessy

Culver City

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I have my own reasons for disliking the governor’s reading program. With all of our schools having tremendous need, it borders on sadism to have the governor dangle $5,000 in front of us like that. If he has that kind of discretionary funding, he should just give it to us.

The program was a major hassle, which now feels wasted since we didn’t win an award. It required a lot of time and management energy on the part of parent volunteers and teachers. Both groups are already stretched to the limit and extremely busy trying to solve larger, systemic problems.

Many parents who have children who read voraciously found the record-keeping onerous. But we have many uses for $5,000. This program is symptomatic of what’s wrong with education in California--little pots of money and lots of paperwork, instead of addressing our needs as a whole.

Ann Wexler

PTA co-president, Cowan Avenue Elementary

Westchester

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Great op-ed piece in The Times. I’ve actually reviewed the literature on this question and found that there are no studies to support reading incentives.

Jeff McQuillan, PhD

Assistant professor of education

Arizona State University

Tempe

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I was so dismayed when I read in The Times (June 4) about children now being paid to read.

I think that the wrong message is given to children when we pay them to do something that is so good for them. Enjoying what they are reading is the reward.

Judy Nelson

La Verne

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Re: “Speed Chills Special Pleasures of Reading,” by Carol Jago (May 28)

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’m the reading teacher at a large suburban high school near Minneapolis. . . . I too have strong doubts about the wonders of speed reading; back in the ‘50s, my elementary teachers used to call it skimming. We were taught about the importance of knowing when and why to slow down.

To quote Woody Allen: “I took one of those Evelyn Wood speed reading courses. I read ‘War and Peace’ in four hours. It’s about Russia.”

Thanks for a good article.

Judith Westergard

Minnesota