As a junior high language arts teacher, I couldn’t help being shocked by a caption under a picture that ran May 10.
The headline over the story itself read “Bookmobile still delivering after 2 1/2 decades.” The caption said that the young girl in the photo “waits to check out videos that she has selected from the bookmobile.” I then carefully examined the picture and, sure enough, the girl had an armful of videos instead of books.
As I struggle to teach novels to 8th graders who can barely read at a 4th grade level, and explain words that should be a normal part of their vocabulary, I can only say, “Parents, when will you wake up and realize that putting a young child in front of a bunch of videos is one of the biggest mistakes you can make in their young developing lives.” While I am well aware that many books are also given out by the bookmobile, your accompanying picture disturbed me. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, and this picture spoke volumes.
