Three cheers for the Berkeley High Bridge Program!

Here's the first cheer.

You guys did a great job.  Thanks for letting us join you today.

The Berkeley High Bridge Program is helping students prepare for the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE).

These pictures are from the December 8th Saturday session.  Instructing today were Ms. Luxford and Ms. Dafamo from Berkeley High, and Mr. Bennin from iMentorCorps.

Why dropping literature from the curriculum is a bad idea

The U.K.'s Telegraph reports that U.S. schools in 46 states are dropping Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird in favor of "informational texts," or, as the Telegraph tartly observes,

American literature classics are to be replaced by insulation manuals and plant inventories in US classrooms by 2014.

The problem is one we've noted in making hundreds of test explanation videos for iMentorCorps.  Much of the language arts material foisted on students is so freakin' boring.

Literature's job is to awaken imagination, to excite students into wanting to read more.  Will every kid respond to Treasure Island, or Planet of the Apes, or To Kill a Mockingbird, or A Wrinkle in Time?  Absolutely not.  But the way to create readers who love to read rather than dreading reading as an arduous chore is to give our students a wide selection of some of the world's best literature.  There is so much great stuff out there.  I still remember reading To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time, or The Martian Chronicles, or Dune, or Into the Wild.

Wasting a single second on second-rate, dulled down, boring writing is killing the love of reading in our kids.  And we at iMentorCorps believe reading is the key.  If a student leaves elementary or high school a reader, you're probably looking at a young person who's got a big leg up on students who don't read, or who think reading is a sort of punishment.

And, if you want to make reading punishment, this is what you give to students:

Suggested non-fiction texts include Recommended Levels of Insulation by the the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Invasive Plant Inventory, by California's Invasive Plant Council.

We can do better, America.