Progressives - At the turn of a page, turning winning children into shunned losers - Granite Grok

Progressives – At the turn of a page, turning winning children into shunned losers

Conan The LibrarianI remember when I started to read and my Mom brought me to the Campello branch of our city’s library – the kindly librarian took me under her wing and started showing me the kids area.  Well, that didn’t last long – I read a kids science fiction book and that started a tear through ALL of them in that branch including the adult books (with side trips into WW II history as well).   All the time, after she saw my selections (heh! during summer vacations, I could easily go through 5 – 10 books a week – yeah, ALL DAY LONG) and always had some suggestions at each visit – until pretty much, she had to admit that it was time to go to the main branch as I had tapped out the smaller one.  Nowadays, not so much.  It seems that libraries aren’t for reading books anymore – talks, games, trips, PCs, Internet, crafts, daycare, video games, music – and, oh yes, get you signed up for Obamacare; seemingly, they want to be everything but about books.

But to DISCOURAGE a kid from reading – a champion reader (emphasis mine, reformatted) ?

 HUDSON FALLS — Tyler Weaver calls himself “the king of the reading club” at Hudson Falls Public Library. But now it seems Hudson Falls Public Library Director Marie Gandron wants to end his reign and have him dethroned. The 9-year-old boy, who will be starting fifth grade next month, won the six-week-long “Dig into Reading” event by completing 63 books from June 24 to Aug. 3, averaging more than 10 a week.

Here’s the rules, here’s the books, compete!  And I would have to say that’s what Tyler did!

He has consistently been the top reader since kindergarten, devouring a total of 373 books over the five contests, according to his mother, Katie.  “It feels great,” said Tyler, an intermediate scholar student at Hudson Falls School. “I think that was actually a record-breaking streak.”  His younger brother, Jonathan, 7, won second place two years in a row now, completing more than 40 books this time.

Sibling rivalry – and what can be better than books?  Really?  Seems like Mom has the right idea as well:

…“I’ve told them God makes all of us different. There are some things that are hard and some that are easy, but they should excel at what they enjoy doing and Tyler just loves to read,” she said. “Everybody he tells, he gets high-fives. Everybody’s so proud of him.”  Everybody, it seems, but Gandron, who was surprised to learn Katie notified a Post-Star reporter about her son being a longtime winner. During a phone call Tuesday to Gandron, the library director said Tyler “hogs” the contest every year and he should “step aside.”  “Other kids quit because they can’t keep up,” Gandron said.  Gandron further told the reporter she planned to change the rules of the contest so that instead of giving prizes to the children who read the most books, she would draw names out of a hat and declare winners that way. She said she can’t now because Katie has come forward to the newspaper.

Right – let’s see more of that “every one’s a winner just for showing up” crap.  Look, life isn’t fair and not everyone is a winner.  Tyler is obviously a kid that likes to read and wants to compete.  Yes, it probably is a fact that his reading speed and comprehension is way off the chart (the library checks to see if the books have actually been read by asking questions).  But what is the key fact here is that his motivation compared to the other children is off the chart as well. All other things being equal, motivation will determine the winner (winner – Progressives want winners not to be decided by what one does but who you know).  And when things are unequal, often it is the case that the motivation one has and the willingness to do the hard work to compete and win will outplay all other inequalities.

The assistant at the library has it right:

“My feeling is you work, you get it. That’s just the way it is in anything. My granddaughter started working on track in grade school and ended up being a national champ. Should she have backed off and said, ‘No, somebody else should win?’ I told her (Gandron), but she said it’s not a contest, it’s the reading club and everybody should get a chance,” Casey said.

Sorry, Ms. Gandron, you set up the contest.  You set the rules.  He met them – over and over.  And now you want to punish him.  Oh, you say you want to “reward the others” – but what are you doing to this overeager beaver whose only fault in your library contest is that he’s good at it.  You are going to teach him that when he works hard, plays by the rules, and outcompetes on a level playing field – somebody is going to screw him over.  The lesson he is gong to learn going forward is

“why bother to try hard and play by the rules”?

The lesson is that he should not be any better than anybody else.  That he should not do his best and put his best foot forward.  What better way to quash a kid’s interest than to tell him he’s so good that he’s going to get punished for it?  More and more, is our society saying “be successful – but not all THAT successful”?  What is wrong with Excellence?  If the kid is reading, he’s learning, right?  Isn’t that the important thing? But more and more, it seems that the Elites / Liberals / Progressives want everyone to be equal – they need people to be the same.  The message is that no one can excel.

Sounds like the librarian needs to be shelved herself.

(H/T: Big Government)

 

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