When I was a little guy, I used to love being read to by my mother. I thought books and stories were cool. When I finally went to school I was exposed to the school library. There was a room full of books and you could borrow them and read them all. That is what I thought and wanted the library to be. There were apparently a lot of rules about what books you could read. I could only read books from a certain shelf in the library.
In my elementary school, students could only get books from the shelves that corresponded to their grade. A first grader, simply wasn’t allowed to even look at most of the books in the library. This was disappointing to Young Nehemiah. The books I was allowed to read were not stimulating to me on any level. I was being held back from reading things I was capable of reading. This was a horrible thing to do to a child. Luckily I am a stubborn sort, so it didn’t really effect me.
I don’t think this whole library episode had lasting implications. This could have really turned some kids off to reading and school. It is criminal that school teachers and librarians act like this sometimes. My ability to read a book didn’t matter to these teachers, my grade level is all that mattered. I was a good reader, but I was held back by the teachers because I was in first grade. Could I have read everything in that library? Maybe not, but I was not even allowed the opportunity to challenge myself.
I think it is horrible to tell a child not to challenge themselves. It seems counter to all that education should stand for. I think in all levels of education we should all the students to challenge themselves. Even if we think they are biting off more than they can chew, sometimes they can chew it. Biting off more than you can chew and chewing it, that teaches you a lot about life. I have done it before, and that is the kind of risk that reaps some real personal rewards. If I couldn’t read the books I tried to read, well I guess I would have fell flat on my face.
Falling flat on your face, that should be a part of the education process. If you don’t run fast and hard into brick walls, you never know if you can run through them. If we break ourselves against these metaphorical walls, then that is what a teacher or mentor is for. They are there to pick us up and help us grow. I don’t know many teachers facilitate this experience for students. Yoda tells us that failure is a great teacher, schools could allow a bit more failure.
The risk associated with failing to be able to read a book that was above my level was small. If it was too much, I would have had Mom read it to me. It would not have been a big deal. I might have been able to read it and stayed excited about reading. Over time I think I lost most excitement for reading and school in general. I was a smart kid, so I got through school just fine, but I didn’t like it. School could be fun and stimulating. Instead we tell kids no too often.
I was told not to read books that were above my level. This level was some arbitrary age grouping of students. What is a first grade even? Is it a set of abilities? No it is a set of birthdays. I fear we do too many things like this that are just one more step in turning students off to school. A student should be allowed to run as far and fast as they want to. They will figure out on their own when to slow down and set a pace. Telling a kid not to learn something because they are too young, well that is a pathetic thing to do.