The thing I like best about this idea is that the teacher, when he found out what the problem was among his poorer students, also figured out a way to fix it through doing something he already did.
A teacher in Nashville, Matthew Portell, asked his students to read a certain amount of time each day, but one of the students said he didn't have any books in the house. Knowing that this was probably an issue in more than one home, Portell tried to find a way to get books into the homes and hit upon the idea of making the donation an event by using a fleet of bicyclists to bring them to the different schools.
I have a friend who once described how a teacher "punished" a fourth grader by publicly shaming her about an incident connected to a reading and book-buying program. I'd have some reservations about leaving that woman alone with her own children, let alone giving her responsibility for anyone else's. Find me a school system that attracts Matthew Portells and rids itself of this other kind as quickly as possible and you have found me a school system I will always vote for in bond issues.
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