Calling all Super Readers

Henry's started watching a TV show called Super Why. It's a group of characters with special powers: Word Power, Spelling Power, Alphabet Power, Power to Read, and, the viewer with the Power to Help. They solve problems by consulting books, changing fairy tales into lessons. Throughout, they ask questions of the viewer. Henry loves it. He puts his hand in when they join in the beginning. He says his name when they ask: "Henry Oscar CaMannell!" He yells out letters when they ask, "What letter is this?" and he points out "Super letters" when they float onto the screen. He repeats lines and jumps up and down when they solve the problem.

In the mornings I watch him giddy to learn, spinning on his tippy-toes and clapping. "Hip hip horray," he squeals.

Over dinner, I listen to teachers talk about their classes. Some students are failing simply because they don't turn in any work, even when given time in class to complete assignments. Others have special accomodations made for them, to the point of getting to wear headphones in class because it calms them. An 80 (out of 100) is considered honors and teachers assigning 30pages of reading over a weekend are told to go easy on their students. My teacher co-workers, many in their first year of teaching, are giving lots of opportunitites to make up work or ask for help. They're going to their classrooms at 6am and not coming home until 9pm. They're meeting with parents who tell them not to teach about contraception and to make sure their child gets to leave class whenever she feels she needs to emotionally.

In the dorm, I'm an advisor to nine girls and we write quarterly reports to their parents, in lieu of long-distance parent-teacher conferences. I'm asked to include comments on their academic, social and extra-curricular activities. As a parent, I try to think of what I'd want to hear about my child. Anecdotes and little details that would tell me my daughter is being appreciated and cared for. There are girls I know better than others, girls whose reports are easy to write. Others I realize I need to spend more time with, ask questions about why they are missing assignments. How that presentation went in English. Whether or not they like the food in the cafeteria. What they like about their roommate.

Watching Henry, I'm wondering when the giddiness goes away. When do kids lose the hip hip horray? What's the teenage equivalent of super letters? How do teachers transform the Power of Indifference to turning in homework? Oh, maybe more importantly, how do I make sure the tippy-toe spinning never stops?