Reading Rainbow Going Off The Air

Yeah, it's true.

I loved this show, growing up. I've always wanted to meet LeVar Burton to thank him for this show more than anything else he's done, because this is a good part of why I love to read so much now.

Quote :

The show's run is ending, Grant explains, because no one — not the station, not PBS, not the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — will put up the several hundred thousand dollars needed to renew the show's broadcast rights.

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."

So, I am sad. It is an awesome show, and I'll be sad to see it go if there's no way to save it.

KelinciHutan wrote:

I loved this show, growing up. I've always wanted to meet LeVar Burton to thank him for this show more than anything else he's done, because this is a good part of why I love to read so much now.

Quoted for truth. And I loved that LeVar Burton would also teach other things, that were referenced in books - using sand for artwork, dying wool, etc. I think I learned more about the world outside of my community watching Reading Rainbow than I did in social studies.

It's a shame no one will put up the funding. It's great to teach the hows, but we still need to show the whys for reading as well.

It was still on?

I knew it was still on but not that it was still producing new episodes; the few times I've seen it recently, they were running episodes from the '80s.

Well, that sucks. I'd hold out hope for a DVD release, but there's probably no money for that, either. (And my mother thought I was crazy for DVRing it!)

Gee, I had totally forgotten this show existed. :hmm:

^
It's pictures like that that make me love the internet. :roflmao:

As someone who learned to read from public television, I weep bitter tears for the future.

PBS taught me how to read too, although it was the original The Electric Company that did it.
Unfortuantely, people seem to have lost a fundamental truth - the more entertaining one makes learning, the more people will be willing to do it.

Yeah, this whole push from 'teaching why to read' to 'teaching how to read' is a bunch of srs BS. You can teach yourself how to read if LaVar Burton fucking tells you that you should. Besides that, just imagining a TV show teaching me how to read gives me a head ache.

Still I would be more sad about it if I had even known the show was still on the air.

KelinciHutan wrote:

Yeah, it's true.

I loved this show, growing up. I've always wanted to meet LeVar Burton to thank him for this show more than anything else he's done, because this is a good part of why I love to read so much now.

Quote :

The show's run is ending, Grant explains, because no one — not the station, not PBS, not the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — will put up the several hundred thousand dollars needed to renew the show's broadcast rights.

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."

So, I am sad. It is an awesome show, and I'll be sad to see it go if there's no way to save it.

Same here. PBS without Reading Rainbow is like London without Big Ben.