Reading Outrage

The students at school are outraged because the Mukwonago Area School District has just adopted a new policy regarding the literature that sixth through eighth graders are choosing. At the Mukwonago School Board’s last meeting, there was a discussion and vote about how students are not indulging themselves in enough non-fiction print. Renowned scholar, Ms.

Jester of LIE (Literary Institute for Education) remarks, “We can’t expect students to be prepared to solve real-world problems if they are only reading about futuristic societies, romance, dragons, magic, etc. They need to be exposed to the lives of real people from history who persevered and solved real problems.” This is the reason for the new decision to transition to an “only non-fiction in school libraries” rule. When the students of language arts classes at PVMS learned of this upsetting news, they were furious! “Let’s protest!”they pronounced. Upon the collection of all books they were currently reading, they all had to hunt down a nonfiction book that appealed to them for the independent reading requirement in language arts classes. Over some time, teachers noticed test scores dropping and kids weren’t doing as much reading at home.

Studies suggest that this is because kids aren’t finding books they’re enjoying, so the district is contemplating their decision. There may soon be another vote on this policy, but for now it seems that student readers need to search for some interesting non-fiction!