Posted on 05/07/2014 8:46:38 PM PDT by expat1000
The principal told students that if they read over 68,000 minutes combined, then he will shave his head. If they hit 75,000 minutes, he would also kiss a pig and if they surpassed that goal then he would take a plunge in the cold ocean.
According to Gibbons, the children almost doubled their numbers from the previous year, from 73,000 to 132,000.
“I'm proud of them and glad to be able to give them the message that not only is reading good, but setting goals and accomplishing them is exciting,” Gibbons said.
(Excerpt) Read more at yourjewishnews.com ...
Unfortunately they all padded their numbers enormously and read very very very slowly
Hmm.
What did they read?
Considering that this came for Your Jewish News, the students must have really kicked butt if the Principal kissed a pig :-)
Heather has Two Mommies.
Vey cool, principal.
Obviously he is not a Muslim.
Shrinkage!!!
This is nice. Sometimes it’s a good thing for the Principal to show some sense of humor. I most like that a big celebratory fuss was made about ACADEMIC achievement. That doesn’t happen very often, especially not after the 6th grade.
It got kids to read at a time when academic achievement is considered boring and old fashioned. Almost assuredly, some percentage of those kids who read because they wanted to see their principal kiss a pig have realized they actually like reading. Life long readers, even if all they read ends up being Westerns, trashy romances, or science fiction, are generally more likely to be on our side, and exposed to our ideas...something to think about.
I was referring to principals and teachers behaving like children - not the book itself. I have no idea what the book is like.
So was I. Sorry if I wasn’t clear.
It’s a ridiculous, silly stunt...but some portion of the children bribed to read will find they like it. Readers are generally more conservative. We win.
I really hate the idea of reading for its own sake. Reading isn’t any different from watching TV. Content is what matters.
Seems to me it’s not at all the same. Reading is to some degree a skill that improves with practice.
Also reading can stimulate the imagination. Of course it depends on the material as well, but no matter what “material” emanates from a TV, that is not going to happen - probably just the opposite.
I know for me, there sre many TV productions and movies based on books like Game of Thrones that I cannot watch enjoyably after reading the books because I see those characters in my mind - they were partially created by me- and the TV ones are nothing like them.
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