The decline of World Book Day from 'an author or some other kind of writer is invited into school, kids get a book token' to 'fancy dress' is truly dreadful.
Can't remember if it was PM or the World at One earlier this week that had the WBD chief exec on, who was challenged on this (and associated matters), and whose response was basically just to say, "but this is about books, and books are good" without seeming to even understand the criticism
"This is about books" - How? Almost by definition, for anyone over 6 the dressing up is about the one part of the book you're not supposed, by custom and idiom, to judge it on!
The school I last worked at used to decorate classroom doors in a book theme (or as a book cover) instead of kids getting dressed up. Much better idea. Done outside lesson time.
Ditto! Another good one was "bring a potato dressed as a book character" which is far easier and cheaper than kid's costume and much more flexible for animal or fantasy characters. And they were on display after.
Our kid's school is doing exactly that - author visit and signing, parents asked not to send kids in costume (some still do) - explicitly to try and keep the focus on reading. I feel like we've had a lucky escape!
It always used to be on 23rd April (bcos Cervantes and Shakespeare). On which day it is still customary in Catalonia to give 'a book and a rose'. But moved so as always to be in term-time.
Indeed. I've got an open mind on homework in general, but any homework that cannot but involve parental involvement should be discouraged for these and other reasons.
Homework / coursework is a different issue, I think, but it’s certainly a problem. I know several people who proudly write their children’s university essays. One friend went to stay with their daughter and wrote an essay for her while she went out clubbing.
My kids school has been de-emphasising the fancy dress for a few years now (if you really want but also midi is cool) and using it to run a fundraiser to buy more books for the school. It feels like a better evolution than fancy dress oneupmanship
Totally agree. I saw an article saying that lots of schools have ditched the fancy dress and just gone for come to School in PJs/comfy clothes with a favourite book.
It is wasteful. The available costumes are unimaginative. Those who can't afford a new costume each year feel excluded. The day should be about books and reading not dress up.
And so many of the dress-ups are the movie or video game version of a character because the kid, and probably the parent, hasn't read the book and it's easier than arguing.
Mind you - I vividly remember in 3rd grade, Amber and her mother had a screaming fight in the classroom where we were changing for the book week parade because SHE wanted to be Sandy from Grease and her mother offered Dorothy from Wizard of Oz or My Fair Lady. The more things change...
I ran this past my 8YO and she informed me I was wrong (this happens a lot), specifically here because they have a week-long book swap & teachers do a peripatetic classroom reading thing the kids love.
TBF this is a school where kids read a lot anyway, so I don’t think it disproves your thesis.
The maddest thing about it is that all the time and energy spent fretting about the costume, making the costume, ranking the costume relative to its peers etc could instead have been devoted to reading and talking about actual books.
I share your sentiment but anything which encourages/promotes reading for kids has to be a good thing. Whether the book is a tie-in to a movie, a computer game, a sports team, or whatever, a book is still better than no book. But yes, the cultural snob in me smarts at this too.
My counter point would be that it's a celebration of books and reading. Kids see each other dressed up and discuss which book. My daughter went as Mrs Pepperpot and we made the costume together as a fun evening activity. However I do see the parental homework thing; I recognise my privilege here.
Yeah - to be clear, I don’t think “dressing up in school hours” would be bad. It’s the “make parents do it”, which to be fair to schools is in part a consequence of their own much-reduced budgets, that I don’t like.
I like my kid’s approach to fancy dress days - for Pirate Day they were asked to come in home clothes and they made the pirate accessories together during school hours
What's amazing is its now declining from even that - we got an email from my son's school with a whole page of suggestions as to how he could do fancy dress without actually doing any fancy dress. You'd think at the point you're writing such an email, you might just reconsider the whole thing
Our (normal, inner London) primary made no stipulations about dress code, encouraged kids to bring in any books they weren't going to read again for a "book swap", gave out the tokens, had a book review competition (to win a book!) and have an author visit tomorrow.
I think it divides them. My 10yo’s class now has a small number of hold outs who showed up in school uniform, plus one kid who wore ordinary clothes and claimed to be “a background character”. And on the other hand, there were eight Oompa Loompas.
I'm one of the Beta Club sponsors at my school and we took students to the nearby elementary schools to have them read to the kids. That's at least something.
Standard trajectory of such initiatives, as the purpose is gradually forgotten, other priorities dominate and what remains is a kind of patchy cargo cult.
The quality of books you get with your token has plummeted too. They used to be proper books, now they're essentially gimmicky single read experiences.
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TBF this is a school where kids read a lot anyway, so I don’t think it disproves your thesis.
(This would have been in the 2000s)
Our (normal, inner London) primary made no stipulations about dress code, encouraged kids to bring in any books they weren't going to read again for a "book swap", gave out the tokens, had a book review competition (to win a book!) and have an author visit tomorrow.