Decision to end ‘Reading Rainbow’ traced to a ‘shift’ in priorities during the Bush administration.
Decision to end ‘Reading Rainbow’ traced to a ‘shift’ in priorities during the Bush administration.
“Reading Rainbow,” of the most beloved and long-running children’s education shows, is airings its last episode today. The show, hosted by actor LeVar Burton, started in 1983. John Grant, who is in charge of programming at Reading Rainbow’s home station, explains that part of the reason the show is ending is because no one — including PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) — wants to continue funding it. The other reason can be traced back to a “shift” in priorities during the Bush administration:
Grant says the funding crunch is partially to blame, but the decision to end Reading Rainbow can also be traced to a shift in the philosophy of educational television programming. The change started with the Department of Education under the Bush administration, he explains, which wanted to see a much heavier focus on the basic tools of reading — like phonics and spelling.
Grant says that PBS, CPB and the Department of Education put significant funding toward programming that would teach kids how to read — but that’s not what Reading Rainbow was trying to do.
“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.”
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The change started with the Department of Education under the Bush administration, he explains, which wanted to see a much heavier focus on the basic tools of reading — like phonics and spelling.
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It’s quite interesting that a President who couldn’t pronounce “nuclear” wanted more emphasis on phonics…
August 28th, 2009 at 11:35 amblack eyes on the wealthy progressives…
where the hell are they?
radio, tv, arts… mostly shot to hell because of their ambivalence…
and selfishness…?
the kennedy’s can only do so much on their own…
August 28th, 2009 at 11:37 amSomeone concluded that higher literacy rates had led to the election of a Democrat President, and that just couldn’t be allowed to continue.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:37 amYou will do what I say and ask no questions school of education.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:43 amIt’s a shame. My girls loved it. It was a great program.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:43 amIt really encouraged children to read.
I know how we can fund this great program – and all of the other vital social programs necessary to our country’s welfare, including Health Reform: Cut the defense budget in half.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:43 amI loved that show..particularly LeVar Burton.
Damn you, Bush-era “public” broadcasting.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:45 amchiroptera toasterhead says:
It’s quite interesting that a President who couldn’t pronounce “nuclear” wanted more emphasis on phonics…
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And let’s not forget Dan Quayle and his famous potatoe moment.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:45 amBush knew that by education America’s youth, he was undercutting the future Republican base
August 28th, 2009 at 11:46 am“educating” damnit
August 28th, 2009 at 11:46 amPerhaps they just convinced themselves the children is learning well enough on their own.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:47 amWingnut “philosophy”: you will read what we tell you to read because we tell you to read it.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:47 amDoes anyone know what this program is being replaced with and where they are getting the funding for the replacement show? I remember Reading Rainbow well as a kid, and it is hard for me to imaging that program having a huge expense budget???
August 28th, 2009 at 11:47 amFonics tot me too red an rit an spel so gud, mi mom sez i kin be ene thing i want wen i gro up!
The continuing dumbing down of America, courtesy No Child of Mine Left Behind.
Pretty sad legacy for our children. God save us all.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:48 amThe change started with the Department of Education under the Bush administration, he explains, which wanted to see a much heavier focus on the basic tools of reading — like phonics and spelling.
And which was repudiated by Bush, every time he talked of a “nukuler threat.“
August 28th, 2009 at 11:50 amThis is another step in the dumbing down of America. Don’t find ways to encourage children to want to learn how to read, make them do it.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:50 amTotal tragedy. I grew up in the 80s in an immigrant neighborhood in Chicago. My folks were immigrants, too, and didn’t grow up with the cannons of children’s literature. This show singularly gave me ideas for books to read. I’d jot down the names of the books and go to the public library once a week to pick the books up. Find the books near by. Read those.I loved it.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:50 amI’m so, so grateful I was able to reap the benefits of this show. This is a real loss.
Can’t have these kids getting enthusiastic and reading on their own. What the Cons want are compliant children that do what they are told….in hopes that they will become adults that are compliant and do what they are told.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:51 amDecision to end ‘Reading Rainbow’ traced to a ‘shift’ in priorities during the Bush administration.
– - If not for ‘Reading Rainbow’ Bush would have never been able to navigate through the literary challenge of “My Pet Goat.”
August 28th, 2009 at 11:51 amLeVar Burton is a hero…
This is a huge, huge shame.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:51 amMaybe some think “Rainbow” sounds too gay.
Seriously, motivation and interest have to precede skill building. Children need to be exposed to a love for reading or learning in general, either by observing parents in these activities or by shows such as Reading Rainbow and Sesame Street. Our founding fathers were keenly aware that a democracy was dependent upon having educated voters. It is no wonder that so many of them were as interested in founding schools as they were founding the country politically. Of course, authoritarian individuals do not want an educated populace because they are too hard to control.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:52 amThe change started with the Department of Education under the Bush administration, he explains, which wanted to see a much heavier focus on the basic tools of reading — like phonics and spelling.
Let me guess: they found a way to make a profit off of “hooked on phonics.”
August 28th, 2009 at 11:52 amDecision to end ‘Reading Rainbow’ traced to a ‘shift’ in priorities during the Bush administration.
The same sort of priority shift in our public schools that cuts funding for programs that promote personal expression, creativity, and cooperation as in the arts where the main purpose is to produce a result that can be shared with the community versus funding sports that promote aggressive competition, teamwork so that the group can beat the other side and a hierarchy structure where everyone learns who their betters are.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:57 amReponsibility for producing the show was first transfered from the original producers in 2000 to the University of Nebraska and then finally in 2006 to Educate Inc.
The people behind Sylvan learning centers.
No wonder LeVar is pissed.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:57 amnice benchdog – do you have something negative to say about puppies and kittens, too?
August 28th, 2009 at 11:58 amwatchdog says:
Where is the almighty messiah to save LeVar Burton?
He’s busy cleaning up your mess, bad dog.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:58 amI’m surprised the Bush administration was only shifting toward an emphasis on phonics. I would have thought the shift would be away from reading altogether — and toward listening. Preferably mindlessly.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:58 amwatchdog says: Where is the almighty messiah to save LeVar Burton?
You know perfectly well what the answer to that question is: in an off-shore, tax-free bank account.
August 28th, 2009 at 11:59 am“The change started with the Department of Education under the Bush administration, he explains, which wanted to see a much heavier focus on the basic tools of reading — like phonics and spelling.”
Neither of which W. the stupid monkey had a firm grasp of.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:01 pmwatchdog says:
What is it about being an ignorant punkass troll that appeals to you? Why are you so proud of being a punk and a moron? Why dont you just STFU and let the adults talk?
August 28th, 2009 at 12:01 pmSo much for encouraging critical thinking or the use of ones imagination.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:02 pmwatchdog says
August 28th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Where is the almighty messiah to save LeVar Burton?
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Levar Burton is just fine, thank you. He’s a talented actor who will be able to find other work with no problem.
There are other reasons to consider saving a show besides keeping an actor working, you know.
You’re off your game today. This exceeds the incoherent gibberish maximum, even for you.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:02 pmwatchdog says:
Where is the almighty messiah to save LeVar Burton?
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Hmmm… straw man, if I’m not mistaken.
***Takes out cheap lighter previously used on Rex Rammell thread…***
August 28th, 2009 at 12:03 pmAnything that continues a Reich-wing/Bush Administration philosophy should be reversed. Almost everything they did was detrimental to our country.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:04 pmWhen I briefly taught high school, saying “read” was the equivalent of saying “set yourself on fire”. These were kids who grew up in George Bush’s America…
August 28th, 2009 at 12:04 pmThey didn’t have enough guns and death in them, so of course they aren’t funded.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:07 pmAnother casualty of the money grubbing fear monkeys.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:08 pmThirty/forty years from now, we should conduct a study determining the IQ’s of those in public schooling during the Bush years. The results will not be pleasant.
Some of my favorite books as a young child were recommended directly by Reading Rainbow. Tragic that this experience will be deprived of future generations due to “fiscal conservatives” throwing money at two wars and an unplanned, unfunded stimulus package.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:11 pmBecause an uneducated populace is a Republican-voting populace. This is kinda like teaching someone how to fire a weapon, but not why.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:12 pmwatchdog is particularly pathetic today… it’s sad, really.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:17 pmJust another Child Left Behind.
Remember when reading was fun for kids? Now, thanks to school emphasis on grade performance, fun things are a no-no. Already our schools are dropping Science and History because of the testing requirements for ‘No Child Left Behind’. Our schools are so underfunded, we had to drop Drivers Ed, and make parents shell out money for other projects. What a shame.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:19 pmThe Republican C-street crime family has adopted fascism as one of its guiding principles. The 11th item on the list of 14 defining charictoristics of fascism is:
The Republican C-street crime syndicate has taken this particular point to the extreme with it’s “no child left behind” policy and its unwillingness to fund education in general.
This can be further confirmed given the poor quality education that Christian schools and universities provide. It is much easier to brainwash a poorly educated person than an educated one and FOX News is ample evidence of the effort to spew propaganda brainwashing.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:19 pmUosdwis says:
This is kinda like teaching someone how to fire a weapon, but not why.
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And sadly enough, many of these people end up shooting themselves too, in addition to all those they hit first, accidentally, or otherwise.
But it is good for gun & ammo sales, and a real boon to the funeral industry. Now, a truly innovative business man would see the potential here and open some sort of combined gun store/funeral parlor emporium, and maybe even throw in a discount liquor outlet to boot.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:20 pmTP is totally trying to depress me today. Grr.
In general, the Bush Admin approach to education has always been to strip it down to as few subjects as possible; or as country folk like to call it “the three R’s” (note that two of those don’t even begin with the letter “R.”) This is a good example – ignoring the “why” to get kids interested in a subject and just narrowly focusing on “how.” What we also need more of is civics and critical thinking. No one should be able to get through the educational system believing that the Constitution says something it doesn’t, just because a wild man on TV said so.
Conservatives take pride on ignorance.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:20 pm“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.”
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Any person who wants to call themselves halfway intelligent should know — although many, unfortunately, do not — that teaching children how to read is quite simply inadequate. A very wise quote (attributed to Mark Twain but not verified as originating with him) says it best — “the man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” Teaching children how to read without teaching them how to love reading makes it less likely that these children will ever acquire an internal motivation to read anything above and beyond the minimum required to pass their classes in school (if that). For these children, reading is more likely to become a dreaded chore instead of something fun (or at least enjoyable) — which makes it more likely that they will in turn view learning as a chore and a hassle instead of something fun and worthwhile. It is likely that many of these children will find it more difficult to do well in school because they have never learned how to find pleasure in learning for its own sake — and it is quite possible that this will extend beyond the schoolroom into their adult lives. People who have no internal motivation to read or learn except under duress have less motivation to seek information for themselves, are less likely to question what they’re being told, and are generally less informed — and as a result, easier to control.
I remember how flabbergasted I was when I first went to college and my new roommates asked me why I had so many books! Apparently, they couldn’t imagine reading anything which wasn’t required for class — and it was a relatively selective school! All I know is that I graduated with honors…I don’t know if they can say the same.
Considering that Bush’s own academic record at Yale was hardly what any right-thinking person would call stellar, I think that his judgment concerning how children should be taught is questionable at best. Actually, considering that Laura Bush is supposed to have trained as a teacher, I’m surprised that she (to all appearances) doesn’t recognize the tremendous importance of teaching children how to love reading for its own sake. Then again, considering the recent disquieting statistic that 50% of all adults in America have not cracked a book in the past year, it seems possible that Bush was just one more link in a chain
August 28th, 2009 at 12:22 pmmangy cur says:
Just STFU!
August 28th, 2009 at 12:24 pmIf anyone had doubts about this POS being a vile, racist, fascist pig, the proof is now irrefutable.
sigh.
If you only focus on the “how” but never the “why” you end up with citizens who read to function in our society, not citizen’s who read for pleasure and to expand their mind.
Of course I also think that when you force kids to read what they are not interested in you are creating non-readers too.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:30 pmAnyone know if they will review “The Pet Goat” in the last episode?
August 28th, 2009 at 12:35 pmI wonder if watchpup has to have someone read these posts to him?
August 28th, 2009 at 1:06 pmI grew up with PBS as the primary entertainment for the first 7-8 years of my life. While there were other shows I liked better, Reading Rainbow was one of the better ones.
It’s sad that even shows like this one have to be politicized in the hyper-partisan era spurred on by the rabid righties.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:17 pmDecision to end ‘Reading Rainbow’ traced to a ‘shift’ in priorities during the Bush administration.
Yeah…a shift in our tax money into the pockets of Halliburton, KBR and the “haves” and the “have mores.”
Thanks, Chimpy. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:28 pmI suggest that people do the honorable thing. If you have kids that are in the age range that Reading Rainbow applies to, read to them. Anything. This goes out to both contributors and trolls.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:31 pmIf the student has a “why” for reading then the “how” almost always works out. I am a retired middle school teacher and most of the students I encountered had reading difficulties because they had no desire or inclination to read. Once they found “the” book – the one that piqued their interest, reading skills improved exponentially.(J.K. Rowling worked miracles!) Learning about reading doesn’t help much. It’s the actual reading that does it. Helping children find books that interest them is a very worthy activity.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:34 pmThis is messed up. I grew up with this and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego on PBS which taught me geography when i was little. Youngsters these days won’t have crap
August 28th, 2009 at 1:36 pmThe worm infested puppy doesn’t have to read anything, he posts what he is fed by the fine folks at Astro-turf Troll Central
August 28th, 2009 at 1:37 pmThat is so sad, so Tragic. I used to watch Reading Rainbow with my toddler daughter, and I often bought the books they read on the show. What a pity.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:35 pmI figure the Bushies mistook this as part of the “gay agenda”
August 28th, 2009 at 4:33 pmThe reason that “what” books one reads in school matters is that the fundamental national curriculum discourse basically assumes those books will be the only books students will EVER read.
which wanted to see a much heavier focus on the basic tools of reading — like phonics and spelling.
That’s not even correct. Phonics and spelling are not the basic tools of reading. they are the basic tools of CONTROLLING reading, of SCORING reading, of ROBBING reading of meaning.
August 28th, 2009 at 4:45 pmI hadn’t connected the freshmen that hated to read with the Bush years. Interesting. Eight years is a long time in a childhood.
I suspect colleges have lightened their reading loads for lower division classes in response to this detestation of reading. I’d hear “kids” carrying on about how much reading there was in an assignment, when it was under a hundred pages and assigned over the weekend. I used to be required to read books in that amount of time, for both college and a high school literature class, and I didn’t hear people complaining as if it were a herculean task. “I hate to read.” was a common mantra my last go at a university.
August 28th, 2009 at 5:15 pmEducation is a State and Local matter. Get rid of the Dept. of Education. Like now.
August 28th, 2009 at 6:11 pmEducation lies under the general welfare, but since you are much to ignorant to understand the basics, it’s understandable that you are a wingnut.
August 28th, 2009 at 8:47 pmI guess an uneducated populace is the future republican base. dumb them down while you can
August 28th, 2009 at 9:44 pmPurple State says:
Anyone know if they will review “The Pet Goat” in the last episode?
That would be hilarious. They should do it.
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kwsventures says:
Education is a State and Local matter. Get rid of the Dept. of Education. Like now.
No.
August 29th, 2009 at 3:27 amGood grief! It *is* possible to walk and chew gum at the same time–couldn’t they combine some of the spelling and phonics skills *and* the encouragement of reading in Reading Rainbow into the *same* program?
August 29th, 2009 at 10:22 amCause we all know, that whether a kid is learning reading by phonics or by other methods, they will apply themselves much harder if they hate what they’re doing.
Yeah, right.
August 29th, 2009 at 4:26 pmVarecia says:
Good grief! It *is* possible to walk and chew gum at the same time–couldn’t they combine some of the spelling and phonics skills *and* the encouragement of reading in Reading Rainbow into the *same* program?
Sure, you could either do two jobs half-assed, or do one job right. But RR never really broke down phonics like say, Sesame Street. They focused more on what kids’ books were awesome and why kids would totally want to read them.
But I suppose if you water everything down enough, you may be able to guarantee funding forever, even if you never get results.
August 30th, 2009 at 7:29 amI thought that the author was joking about blaming Bush. The Dems have the White House and super majorities in both the House and Senate for the entire year. They’ve spent trillions of dollars on almost everything including the kitchen sink and can pass any legislation that they want. Reading Rainbow was ended because the Dems decided to end it.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:46 am