Whys, Hows, and Rainbows that Read

Butterfly in the sky.   I can fly twice as high.  Take a look.  It’s in a book.  Reading Rainbow.  Reeeading Raaaainbowww!

On my way to work this morning NPR told me that Reading Rainbow is ending its 26 year run today.  26 years!  That means that when this show first came on the air, I was crusing around in my Mom’s belly.  LeVar Burton was fresh off of Roots, and I’m not even sure if he was “Geordi LeForge” on Star Trek yet.  But there he was, teaching my generation to love books on PBS.

I had no idea Reading Rainbow was still on the air, but I have fond memories of the show.  I remember watching it with my Mom as a kid, and later on with my little brother (though he was always partial to Barney).  I loved the way the camera would pan around inside the book, and make each little two-dimensional drawing feel like a Disney movie.  The voices and music would swirl together to bring the story to life in a way I never experienced from my local librarian, try as she may (bless her heart).  Thinking back, I’m confident that this show played a role in my love for reading that continues to this day.

So that’s why I’m disturbed about this shows cancellation and what it may mean for our society.

According to the NPR report (link here), there were a few factors for the show’s cancellation.  On the one hand, it took hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund the show’s broadcast rights, but even with the state of the economy and budget shortfalls at PBS, that’s not necessarily the primary reason.  According to John Grant, fron the Buffalo station which was home to Reading Rainbow, the educational philosophy of public broadcasting has taken a shift in the last several years.  Now the Coorporation of Public Broadcasting is pouring all its money into programs that teach the basic tools of reading, like phonics, grammar and spelling.  In other words, the How. 

But that was never the focus of this show.  “Reading Rainbow taught kids why to read,” Grant says. “You know, the love of reading — [the show] encouraged kids to pick up a book and to read.”  But apparently, with this generation of kids, we can no longer assume that they know how to read.  Shows like Reading Rainbow have become a luxury, and it seems that there is no longer a place for programming that simply fosters a love of reading.

As I re-enter the teaching profession, I am beginning to see the profound effect that this line of thinking has had on a generation of students.  I can’t shake the feeling that so much of a student’s education must be molded around the Hows to the bereft of the Whys.  When the focus of a student’s high school career becomes passing the TAKS test, we have a serious problem.

I see it most in my Math classes.  I think more then any other subject, students hate math because there is no Why.  There is no reason for them to learn it.  They just learn How to pass the TAKS test.  I don’t claim to have all the answers… or even any good ones.  I just know that my goal is to show the students why they should learn math in addition to how they can use it.  To show them the possibilities exist out there if they can learn and enjoy math.

But as I heard the report about Reading Rainbow, I couldn’t help but apply this line of reasoning to how a lot of us live as Christians.  So very many of us are taught how to live “moral, Christian lives” consistently through out our childhood.  This seems to be the focus of so much Sunday School material and sermons, as well as the main thrust of the so called “Religious Right” in its political engagement.  The expectation is a nice, clean cut religious family, full of children who don’t smoke, cuss, drink, have sex or party. 

But what is the Why?  Why should I live this way?  Why should I love my brother?  Why should I do all these things in the “good” column and reject all these things in the “bad” column?

And of course, the answer is Love.  We live in obedience to God because He loves us.  Love and Honor for God and for our fellow man must be at the center of our actions, not the actions themselves!

When How replaces Why, or (even more dangerously) Who, we replace Christ with Moralistic Therapeutic Warm Comfortable Feeling…  Nothing.

So teach the child to read.  Teach him how to sound out the words, how to spell, how to use correct grammar, how to string the letters and words together into meaningful sentences.

But for the love of all that is good and holy, don’t fail to teach the child why he should read. 

Don’t fail to remember why you should live!

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