RIP Reading

Unfortunately, as of Friday, Reading Rainbow will be no more. I can remember many a day as a child spent watching Reading Rainbow and eating grilled cheese sandwiches, and let me tell you, those were good days. A blog from the Wall Street Journal explains a little bit of the thinking behind the cancellation.

"Pointing to changes in educational programming funding, Grant said that the Department of Education and PBS are spending more money on teaching kids how to read, not on teaching them to savor the act itself. But the delights of “Reading Rainbow” stemmed directly from this premise – that kids could lose themselves in magical worlds just by turning a page."

If that above quote is true, it is a sad commentary that we are focused more on the fundamentals than the the purpose and enjoyment of reading itself.

Oh well, thanks to youtube we will forever be able to enjoy the sweet opening segment that I grew up on.