ABSTRACT
The town’s head librarian loved to encourage the children of his small,
isolated farming community to read. He frequently went to the local
school to read to the children. Most recently, he had been reading to a
class of “at-risk” eighth graders-students who had been held back two
or more years in school. They loved his reading and his choices of
books. He reports feeling very frustrated: the department chair has told
him not to come any more to read to the students-they are too busy
preparing for their TAAS test.
