Goodbye Reading Rainbow

After 26 years of reading fun, PBS has decided to take the classic children's show Reading Rainbow off the air. I have to say that I am genuinely sad. Like so many people, I have fond memories of exploring the exciting world of books with Levar Burton. The show's cancellation is due in part to a lack of funding but also to a shift in the philosophy of what the purpose of children's TV show should be. This change can be traced back to the Department of Education under the Bush Administration. The emphasis shifted heavily toward giving kids basic ready skills like phonic and spelling. As a result, PBS, CPB and the Department of Education began to put large amounts of funding toward shows that taught children how to read. Unfortunately, the focus of Reading Rainbow was to help children develop a love of books and reading -- and assumed that they already had basic reading skills.

Reading Rainbow is the third longest-running children's show in PBS history; survived by Sesame Street and Mister Rogers. In a way, it feels like this marks the end of an era where children's shows were not based on technology and computers, but instead had a low-tech and more tangible theme. There was no 3D animation or fancy CG graphics, the emphasis was on real people doing real things. When I think of kids shows today, I don't understand many of them. And maybe that's because I have become old and cynical and prejudiced toward my own childhood. But while many of these new shows don't lack Flash! and Wow! I can't help but feel they don't have soul. At least not the kind of soul that shows like Reading Rainbow had.

Good bye Reading Rainbow; you will be missed.

And, because we all need to listen to it one more time, I leave you with the Reading Rainbow theme song: