2 MILLION WORDS can ruin a otherwise beautiful Sunday morning!

[Karen McIntyre <kjmcinty@net-serv.com>]

It is Sunday morning.  Church beckons, but I am catching up on LM_NET.
As a harbinger of Fall leaves float down from the trees on the warm
humid breeze just outside my window.  God is in His heaven and all seems
right with the world.  Then I read Nancy Lyle's post. of Sept. 6th.

"Colleagues,

According to California's standards for 11th and 12th grades, students
should read 2 million words per year outside of their class work.  Does
anyone know about how many pages this would be?

Thanks.

Nancy"

Nancy, if you use the old typewritten page count -- it was 250 words per
page.  That would be 8,000 pages.

You can get about 400 words on a paperback novel page.  That would still
be over 4,000 pages. Translated in number of books that could be between
10 and 20 (again depending on the number of pages)

Now, here is my question.  How was this standard developed?  Does anyone
out there see this is a bit ridiculous?

1) Do short words count.  May we count the billboards, email, frivolous
classroom notes, cereal boxes, candy wrappers,  reading on the Internet,
etc.?
2) What about the quality of the words.  Is struggling through and
understanding Shakespeare equal to reading Sweet Valley High if we go by
the number of words read?
3) Does the mere act of calling words through the use of phonemic
awareness and phonics count as reading?  I did hear a government
official say that reading was after all only a skill --  would that it
were true! (be sure to check out what the Department of Education has
learned about teaching reading  after reviewing more than 100,000
studies. http://www.ed.gov/inits/nclb/part4.html )

Sometimes I think the world has truly lost its balance, and this
requirement IMHO could be offered up as proof of that.

Karen McIntyre
Librarian, Westmeade Elementary School
6641 Clearbrook Dr.
Nashville, TN 37205 (615) 353-2066.
***********************************************************************
"The seeds of one generation can be born in the next and the spirit of
one long dead can reach across time, not merely to inspire but to mold
the dreams of another."
                                                                               
---Wade Davis, One River

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=
All postings to LM_NET are protected under copyright law.
To quit LM_NET (or set-reset NOMAIL or DIGEST, etc.) send email to:
listserv@listserv.syr.edu   In the message write EITHER:
1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST
4) SET LM_NET MAIL  * Please allow for confirmation from Listserv.
For LM_NET Help see: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/
Archives: http://askeric.org/Virtual/Listserv_Archives/LM_NET.shtml
 See also EL-Announce for announcements from library media vendors:
    http://www.mindspring.com/~el-announce/
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=