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Authors raise doubts over Gove's 50-book challenge
Education secretary Michael Gove has suggested that children as young as 11 should be reading 50 books a year – and that leading children's authors should recommend them.
Following a tour he made of America's independently-run, state-funded charter schools – including the Infinity Charter School in Harlem, which set its pupils a "50-book challenge" over the course of a year – Gove said that schools in the UK needed to "raise the bar" on children's reading:
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"Recently, I asked to see what students were reading at GCSE," Gove said. "I discovered that something like 80-90% were just reading one or two novels – and overwhelmingly it was the case that it included Of Mice and Men. We should be saying that our children should be reading 50 books a year, not just one or two for GCSE." 我們應(yīng)該告訴孩子們每年閱讀50本書籍，而不是為了應(yīng)付畢業(yè)考讀一本兩本就完事。
【注釋】GCSE為英國(guó)的初中畢業(yè)統(tǒng)考?！度耸笾g》是美國(guó)小說家斯坦貝克1937年的作品。英國(guó)的語文畢業(yè)統(tǒng)考要求學(xué)生細(xì)致分析選定的小說或詩歌，顯然《人鼠之間》是該年度的考試選書。
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But children's laureate Anthony Browne has said Gove's aims are at odds with the library closures happening under his government's watch. He declared himself "surprised" at Gove's comments, "given that the government is cutting library budgets, and that programmes giving free books to children, such as Bookstart, are also being cut."
兒童詩桂冠詩人安東尼·布朗尼卻對(duì)此建議表示“驚奇”，指出教育部長(zhǎng)的目標(biāo)與政府的現(xiàn)行政策相悖，政府正在削減圖書館經(jīng)費(fèi)，削減為兒童提供免費(fèi)圖書的項(xiàng)目。言下之意，此建議不過是空談而已。
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"It's always good to hear that the importance of children's reading is recognised – but rather than setting an arbitrary number of books that children ought to read, I feel it's the quality of children's reading experiences that really matter," Browne said. "Pleasure, engagement and enjoyment of books is what counts – not simply meeting targets."
布朗尼說：“聽見兒童閱讀的重要性得到承認(rèn)總是好的，但是與其隨便設(shè)一個(gè)孩子們應(yīng)讀書籍的定額數(shù)字，我感覺，孩子們閱讀體驗(yàn)的質(zhì)量才是關(guān)鍵。歡愉、專注、享受，這些才真正算數(shù)，而不是簡(jiǎn)單地完成的某個(gè)定額。”
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Browne's views were echoed by others'. Frank Cottrell Boyce, author of children's novels Cosmic and Millions, said that while Gove's instincts were right, the government's wider actions were "militating against what Gove wants – like closing libraries, which is just a disaster."
布朗尼的觀點(diǎn)得到了其他作家的響應(yīng)，兒童作家博易思說，戈夫的直覺雖然正確，但政府的行為效果卻與恰恰他的愿望相反，諸如關(guān)閉圖書館等等措施，根本就是災(zāi)難性的。
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Alan Garner, author of children's classic The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, meanwhile, questioned the advisability of turning books into numbers. "Is any number a useful guide?" he asked. "The important aim should be a reading that is wide and deep rather than numerical. In my own primary school years I read everything I could find, which amounted to at least four books a week and as many comics as possible. The Beano and The Dandy were equal with Tarzan of the Apes, Enid Blyton, HG Wells, Kipling, wildlife books, fairy tales, encyclopaedias. This resulted, painlessly, in a large vocabulary, an awareness of differences of style, the absorption of grammar and syntax and an ability to spell."
兒童經(jīng)典《怪異寶石》的作者阿蘭·伽內(nèi)爾則質(zhì)問將書籍變?yōu)槎~是否適宜，“哪個(gè)數(shù)字定額可以作為有用的指導(dǎo)？根本的目標(biāo)是廣泛深入的閱讀，而不是用數(shù)字衡量的閱讀。我上小學(xué)時(shí)，看遍了能找得到的書，大概合起來，每星期四本的樣子，再加上盡可能多的漫畫?！侗戎Z與丹迪》和《猿人泰山》；依尼德·布萊頓、H·G·威爾斯、吉普林；野生動(dòng)物，童話，百科全書。結(jié)果，沒有經(jīng)歷絲毫痛苦，就擁有了大量詞匯，擁有了對(duì)不同的風(fēng)格領(lǐng)悟力，對(duì)語法句法的著迷，和正確拼寫的能力。”
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Philip Pullman, author of the prizewinning His Dark Materials trilogy, agreed - and added a further caveat. "I'm all in favour of children reading books, of course, the more the merrier," he said. "What I'm wary of is that people will start saying that quality is more important than quantity. When it comes to reading books, children should be allowed – and encouraged – to read as much rubbish as they want to. But that can only happen when there are plenty of good books as well as rubbish all around them. Where are they going to get these 50 books a year from?"
獲獎(jiǎng)小說《黑質(zhì)三部曲》的作者菲利普·普爾曼表示同意，并進(jìn)一步警告說，“我當(dāng)然贊同讓孩子們讀書——多多益善，我擔(dān)心的是，會(huì)有人開始強(qiáng)調(diào)質(zhì)量高于數(shù)量。我認(rèn)為，在兒童閱讀這個(gè)問題上，我們應(yīng)該允許孩子們閱讀垃圾，不僅允許，還要鼓勵(lì)，愛讀多少垃圾都可以。但那只能當(dāng)孩子們周圍同時(shí)存在大量好書的情況下才行。你讓孩子們到哪里去找這50本書??？”
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Meanwhile, Miranda McKearney, chief executive of the Reading Agency, which runs an annual Summer Reading Challenge in which children are encouraged to read six library books over the holiday, expressed concern over the execution of Gove's ambition. "So often the discussion about how to inspire children to read focuses just on schools, but libraries, and families, have a key role to play," she said. "We won't crack the problems unless we build a more systemic approach."
同時(shí)，“大家讀”組織的負(fù)責(zé)人米蘭達(dá)·麥卡尼對(duì)如何實(shí)施戈夫的雄心計(jì)劃表示疑慮，“每當(dāng)談起如何激勵(lì)孩子們閱讀，大家總是聚集在學(xué)校。但是圖書館和家庭的角色至關(guān)重要。除非建立一個(gè)系統(tǒng)性的處理方式，我們不可能解決這個(gè)難題。”“大家讀”是一個(gè)獨(dú)立的慈善機(jī)構(gòu)，旨在通過舉辦各種活動(dòng)，提高全民的閱讀水平。每年暑假，“大家讀”都舉辦面向少年兒童的“暑假讀書挑戰(zhàn)”，鼓勵(lì)參加活動(dòng)的孩子們?cè)诩倨诶飶膱D書館借閱6本書。
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