'Reading Rainbow' Reaches Its Final Chapter : NPR

Reading Rainbow comes to the end of its 26-year run on Friday; it has won more than two-dozen Emmys, and is the third longest-running children's show in PBS history - outlasted only by Sesame Street and Mister Rogers. ^{link »}

The show, which started in 1983, was hosted by actor LeVar Burton. (If you don't know Burton from Reading Rainbow , he's also famous for his role as Kunta Kinte in Roots , or as the chrome-visored Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation. ) ^{link »}

Each episode of Reading Rainbow had the same basic elements: There was a featured children's book that inspired an adventure with Burton. Then, at the end of every show, kids gave their own book reviews, always prefaced by Burton's trademark line: "But you don't have to take my word for it ..." ^{link »}

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. ^{link »}

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. ^{link »}

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. ^{link »}

" 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." ^{link »}

Linda Simensky, vice president for children's programming at PBS, says that when Reading Rainbow was developed in the early 1980s, it was an era when the question was: "How do we get kids to read books?" ^{link »}

Since then, she explains, research has shown that teaching the mechanics of reading should be the network's priority. ^{link »}

Research has directed programming toward phonics and reading fundamentals as the front line of the literacy fight. Reading Rainbow occupied a more luxurious space - the show operated on the assumption that kids already had basic reading skills and instead focused on fostering a love of books. ^{link »}

Re: Npr.org by nick1899

'Reading Rainbow' Reaches Its Final Chapter : NPR