Archie’s new teacher started yesterday.  The jury is still out as to whether Archie is going to like her or not but she seemed relatively pleased with the start yesterday.  She apparently doesn’t take any rubbish from the kids so it will be nice to see some discipline put back into the class.  She’s also organising a class time table so structure should rear her head again too.

The only thing that Archie was confused about was whether she liked the teacher’s attitude towards reading.

Her classroom has a small bookshelf.  The children are free to grab a book during free time or when their work is finished and take it back to their desk.  New Teacher has said she’ll be bringing cushions in for the kids to lounge around on (inviting trouble if you ask me!) and she’s going to obtain more books.  The children are encouraged to bring their own book in though so Archie has taken Eldest in to finish off.

What confused her though is the teacher has said they’ll get 5 minutes first thing after lunch to read.  A bit short according to Archie but better than nothing.  New Teacher then went on to say that if they didn’t behave, they would get another 5 minutes of reading time.

WTF?  Archie and I don’t understand why reading is being used a form of punishment?  Am I so out of touch with the ‘normal’ world that I fail to see that as completely backward?  Don’t we (as a planet) have issues with literacy and a reluctance by a lot of children, especially boys, to read? 

So – should reading be used as a behaviour modification tool?  Archie and I vote no although she is now secretly hoping that the boys are true to form and muck up so that she gets extra reading time

Archie’s Mum