Know why your kid hates to read?

I am a copy editor by profession. I sit at home and read manuscripts of children's textbooks. As I don't ever have to talk with anyone on the phone, and I don't have to go an office, the work suits me far better than my former profession as a journalist. I remind myself of these benefits while the futility of my job and the inanity of most textbooks eats away at any sense of purpose and well-being. But you've gotta make a living.

There are many, many things wrong with the textbooks I edit (which, of course, means "things that are wrong with education in the U.S."). But the two most egregious problems, the two things that really screw up the education of your average American child are:

-Every state has it own standards, most of which suck (Texas: "large muscle group motion, such as circling arms"; New York: "The peoples and peopling of the American colonies (voluntary and involuntary)." Um, involuntary peopling, yeah, that's what we call it.) This doesn't mean the federal government should get involved. They've already gutted things enough with the "Leave all non-wealthy children behind" Act.

--They are BORING. Crashingly boring. Heartbreakingly boring. You want to know why so many teachers have so many behavior problems with young kids? The kids are bored to tears.

State standards and standardized testing have to answer for a lot of the boredom. Take a K-2 reading and phonics textbook set I worked on last year. The kids got to read cool little stories, except that the teachers weren't allowed to let them learn to read, enjoy, and employ their imaginations. Oh, no. The teacher had to say idiotic, killing things like, "Good readers look for a main idea and details as they are reading," or, "Careful readers think about cause and effect on each page of the story." They had to stop kids throughout the reading to make them think about things like characterization and setting. They're in kindergarten!

If you had been taught to read this way when you were 6, or 8, or even 15 years old, wouldn't you prefer television, too?