Lowering the Bar

I find this highly disturbing (emphases mine):

Barnes & Noble Inc.'s Sterling Publishing unit has launched a new line of 10 literary classics that appeal to both those who struggle to read and to avid younger students whose reading skills aren't quite strong enough to let them master "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" in its original. The books, which have been retold using simpler words, have been surprisingly hot sellers, so much so that they are already in their fifth printing ... Peggy Charren, a visiting scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, an advocate for higher quality children's media, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, said she has read several of the books. "I was worried because they are truncated, but they're terrific," she said. "For some kids with reading problems, picture books may be as far as they get. But when they can make sense out of symbols on the page, you want them to have to the option of reading something wonderful, like a classic." ... The regular editions can be very difficult because such kids spend so much time trying to decipher the words that the meaning of the story eludes them.

**begin rant** OK, first of all, if they're reading these "editions" they're not reading the classics. You can't have the classic without the language, and it's insulting to authors everywhere to suggest otherwise. Second of all, have we seriously gotten to the point where we don't want to use literature to build vocabulary? Where it's a problem that kids are having to "decipher the words?" Look, I'm not unreasonable. If you want to expose second graders to Chaucer or Beowulf you're gonna need to either do it in very small chunks or translate it into modern English. But there is no good reason to do that for anything written after the 1480s! And yes! This means I'm advocating unadulterated Shakespeare for small children!! **end rant**

Seriously. I've worked with kids with reading disabilities, and classic literature is one of the BEST teaching tools for them, precisely because the stories and the language are so compelling that their interest is captured. If this is part of a larger trend of dumbing down materials for LD kids then we have really hit the decline of modern education. (hatip to Bookslut)