Reading Rainbow

One of my favorite kids’ shows is ending.

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.”

This makes me so sad.  Kids don’t get enough rein­force­ment on the joy of read­ing.  Also, as some­one who just had kids leav­ing that age group, most of those newer “how to read” shows on PBS are ter­ri­ble. The only notable excep­tion I can think of is Between the Lions, which bridges the gap between the clas­sic how to read show, Sesame Street and the niche Read­ing Rain­bow filled fairly well.  The next best, Super Why and Word Girl, have served as mostly mediocre enter­tain­ment to my chil­dren.  I guess it’s just a good thing I didn’t rely on the tele­vi­sion as a teacher.