Let's save Reading Rainbow

[Jason M]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112312561

Ok, it's getting canceled because nobody wants to pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees.  (Probably because PBS is taking a different direction, too.)  So, here's the deal:

I am not too terribly upset.  I'd like to see the show continue, but not enough to put forth a massive effort to do so.  Here are some ideas for those of you who do care:

1.  Email and call broadcasting stations, not just PBS, but Nickelodeon, TVLand (a great fit, IMO) and local stations.
2.  Get a website like "savereadingrainbow.org"
3.  Talk to your friends and family.
4.  Secure pledges.
5.  Contact authors and tell them how the show encouraged you to read.
6.  Contact book sellers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.

Those are just some pointers.

If someone gets the ball rolling, I'll make a $500 pledge.

Z

[Russell Nash]

With all the cutbacks to CPB over the last decade they've had to rely on donations.  Those have really dried up in the last year.  There have been big cuts all across the public broadcasting spectrum.  Without either an increase in government funding or a sudden economic recovery we will continue to lose programming like this.  My donations to NPR are way up. but I'll never come close to covering their losses caused by congressional cutbacks.

Edit:  Just listened to the story.  I find the "change indirection" to be totally misguided.  My children are only starting to learn to read, but they love books.  This love of books is why they want to learn to read.  If they weren't so addicted to being read to, it would be impossible to teach them how to read.  The approach pushed by this "new thinking" is like teaching kids to play soccer by running them repeatedly through drills, but never letting them play. 

I just told my son that we weren't going to read to him anymore.  We were just going to teach him phonics and tell him to go read on his own.  He told me he no longer wants to learn how to read.  I told him we'd go back to the other way if he wanted.  He said that was good and then sat down at the scrabble board and started spelling words with the tiles.