
Bring Reading Rainbow Back - oddevan
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/readingrainbow/bring-reading-rainbow-back-for-every-child-everywh
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zmitri
I once met LeVar at a bar at a restaurant. As a fan of Star Trek, I wanted to
go up to him, but figured he must get bothered by a lot of intense trekkies so
I broke the ice with a conversation about Reading Rainbow.

He talked about Reading Rainbow with me for a good 15 minutes straight. He was
unbelievably proud and passionate about the work he did on that show, and so
I'm very pleased to see this video today.

Proof
[https://twitter.com/dmitric/status/405038964001996800](https://twitter.com/dmitric/status/405038964001996800)

~~~
donretag
I might lose all my karma points for posting this but: LeVar Burton was on
Star Trek? I guess I am not much of a geek. :)

~~~
a_e_k
Yes, he played Geordi La Forge on ST:TNG. It's been decades but as I recall,
there was even a crossover episode of RR where they went behind the scenes and
showed him in costume, how the transporter effect was done and so forth. I
still remember it vividly.

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ChuckMcM
I observe that of all the things I did with my kids when they were growing up,
reading to them every night has had the most profound impact. Early in their
lives they liked being read to because it was 'time with mom' or 'time with
dad', later when they were early readers, it was a way to 'be the mom' and
read to us. And of course once they became facile readers it took them to
places and introduced them to people they would never have met in their day to
day lives. To this day I have fond memories of my daughter correcting errors
in Egyptian mythology on Star Gate because she had absorbed a giant tome on it
in her fascination with the stories.

If you have kids, read to them, if they have heard the story before and are
bored ask them what the characters in the story are thinking, if they feel
like they know that ask them how the story might go differently based on
different outcomes. Get them reading, and thinking about what they are
reading, and be tolerant of them sneaking a light under the covers so they can
finish a book.

~~~
gertef
Anecdote is not data.

Here's data:

[http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/about/research/rea...](http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/about/research/readtoyoungchild.pdf)

Key Findings

* Reading to children at age 4-5 every day has a significant positive effect on their reading skills and cognitive skills (i.e., language and literacy, numeracy and cognition) later in life.

* Reading to children 3-5 days per week (compared to 2 or less) has the same effect on the child’s reading skills at age 4-5 as being six months older.

* Reading to them 6-7 days per week has the same effect as being almost 12 months older.

* Children read to more frequently at age 4-5 achieve higher scores on the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests for both Reading and Numeracy in Year 3 (age 8 to 9).

* These differences in reading and cognitive skills are not related to the child’s family background or home environment but are the direct result of how frequently they have been read to prior to starting school.

~~~
dllthomas
I wonder whether this is better than _talking to_ children for a similar,
blocked off period of time every day.

I can think of reasons it might be better and reasons it might be worse.

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ChuckMcM
Talking is great, but often constrained to the limits we set ourselves (our
town, our experiences, our acquaintences) but reading is not bound by our
imagination, only by the authors. Helps us step out of our comfort zone.

~~~
dllthomas
For sure. On the flip side, talking can be more interactive (which is probably
good but maybe it's not), and stretching our own imaginations is worth doing -
most people can probably come up with stories with enough creativity to
entertain a four-year-old, particularly if the adult has been doing some
reading.

But then, of course, building positive associations around books is doubtless
valuable in our current society.

Lots of great arguments on both sides. I'm certainly not going to forego
reading to my children. I'm just floating a perspective I found interesting.

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hkarthik
I can attest to the effectiveness of the iPad app on my 5 year old. This app
stimulated her interest in reading even more than us reading to her every
night. She now reads at close to a 2nd grade level.

I was amazed to find out that she had been discovering books via the app
completely on her own. She would have the app read a book to her, then turn
off the auto-reading and learn to read it by herself. Now she uses the app to
read to her little sister.

Kudos to Levar Burton and all those involved in bringing Reading Rainbow to
the next generation on a new medium!

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bradly
"1 out of every 4 children in America will grow up illiterate"

Is that really true? According to Wikipedia, 99% of the U.S. population is
literate.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_r...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate)

~~~
baldfat
Being a foster parent there is also communication illiterate!

Took me 6 years to get my oldest daughter to stop saying like every third
word! Then she went off to college and she got worse!! Thanks high
education!!!

~~~
thebooktocome
Speaking in an established sociolect is not an instance of communication
illiteracy. Valleyspeak has been around for decades, and isn't going anywhere.

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tjbarbour
Glad to see them working to promote reading! Though I wonder...

Why didn't they start with the web to begin with? You can use a web-based
solution on a tablet (given a decent design), but you can't use a tablet-based
solution on the web. Now they're trying to fight that 'limitation.'

I understand the 'novelty' and the sheer boom of tablets at the time and the
better physical mapping from tablet experience to reading a book, but
technologically there's doesn't seem to be much of a reason for them going
with an iPad app first. Possibly offline support (valid) or performance
(shouldn't be a problem...). There's probably a much more practical answer
such as: their technical team had experience in app development OR maybe
Burton just really liked his iPad and that's where the movement started.

On another note, I loved the show growing up and like they're trying to
continue it. I'm a bit conflicted about the subscription part of the service.
I want it to be sustainable, but wish there was a larger free offering. Maybe
latest content is free, archived content requires a subscription (ala Hulu)?
At least they'll offer it for free to needy schools that's nice.

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dkhenry
if this were a kickstarter to public domain all of reading rainbow. I would
gladly donate, but to fund yet another closed garden that I would need a
subscription for is a non starter for me. Best Of Luck to those who back it.

~~~
dllthomas
I heartily endorse your concern, but I still donated.

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silencio
Excited to see this! I have such fond memories of watching Reading Rainbow.

I would love to see a similar kickstarter for other shows I also enjoyed - The
Magic School Bus first in my mind. I just rediscovered all the shows on
Netflix and I've been watching all the episodes.... I _just_ discovered that a
lot of the guests on the show are celebrities like Dom DeLuise, Elliott Gould,
Alex Trebek and more, and I can't find another show quite like it. It dates
itself here and there - like the series finale was about computers and
features floppy drives - but The Friz is unparalleled on so many levels. She
was a great role model while I was young.

~~~
keenerd
My second choice after Reading Rainbow would be Square One. I had only watched
it between the ages of five and nine, but it literally put me three years
ahead in mathematics during elementary school. (Helped along by a fantastic
teacher too.)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_One_Television](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_One_Television)

~~~
fixermark
More of my personal philosophy has been shaped by Weird Al Yankovic's song
"Patterns" (first seen on Square One) than I should probably admit. ;)

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tdicola
Great cause that I'm happy to support. Now I just wish somebody would bring
back 3, 2, 1 Contact! and Mr. Wizard (ancient HERO robot and all).

~~~
isa
3, 2, 1 contact was sooo good. Mathnet? ^_^ & Mr. Wizard - my little
elementary school mind was blown when he showed me water isn't wet.

~~~
pionar
Mathnet was a segment on SquareOne. I enjoyed that as well.

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Crito
I remember going to the library when I was a kid to pick up copies of books I
saw on this show. I had no idea it had such a long and successful run; I hope
they succeed in continuing it.

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hysan
How effective do people think this will be as a way to help students in
foreign countries learn to read English as a second language? Specifically in
countries where the school system mandates learning English (ex: Japan).

Of course, I'll be trying out the app myself if I can to see what it's like,
but I'm interested to hear from people who have used their existing app for a
similar purpose. I'm trying to decide if that $5000 reward is worth it (it
would be a hell of a chunk of my savings but I love the students at my
school).

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gajeam
I had the good fortune to see Levar Burton receive award for children's media
at my university. At the end of the ceremony, he brought two dozen children
from an associated preschool up on stage and read them a story (I think it was
called "Enemy Pie".)

I can say without exaggeration that it was the best public reading of anything
I've seen in my life. Watching children so deeply engage with an icon that
they probably don't even recognize was a wonder.

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mrfusion
Ironically I'm probably reading the kickstarter page poorly. Are they raising
money to buy the license of old episodes, or to make new ones?

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scrabble
Neither.

They are raising money to create a subscription web service of their current
subscription tablet app.

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adsfasdf23f23f
As a kid I never liked this show. I loved reading books. I always thought,
"why do I want to watch tv about reading books?"

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stefan_kendall3
Only "underprivileged" schools will get the content for free, which implies
they intend to sell the software to schools, which implies business.

You're not supposed to be able to kickstart a business. You shouldn't get a
pass just because you're Reading Rainbow and levar burton.

~~~
cmelbye
What do you mean "you're not supposed to"? People can and will spend their
money however they'd like. They've raised more than $400k already, obviously
at least a few people disagree with you.

~~~
stefan_kendall3
It's against the terms of service to kickstart a business. You need a product.
This is a long-term education-sales company, not a specific product of any
kind.

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drawkbox
This show and Cap'n O.G. Readmore did help make books adventurous for me.
Hopefully OG will do a kickstarter.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cap'n_O._G._Readmore](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cap'n_O._G._Readmore)

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donatj
Working for a company that is a direct competitor of Reading Rainbow's app,
yet growing up with Reading Rainbow my feelings are mixed and diverse.

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satellitecat
My phone's ring tone is the reading rainbow theme

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isa
Who can sing the theme song? And, are you singing it now either in your head
or out loud? *raises hand

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joelgrus
I've read the Kickstarter page twice, and I still can't figure out what they
are going to spend the $1M on (or how they arrived at that number). I know it
doesn't cost $1M to build a website.

~~~
zenciadam
How much does a CDN to reach 70% of grade school children cost? There's a lot
more involved than just installing Apache on a vps.

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mrfusion
Are the old episodes available on Netflix or Hulu?

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sp332
Looks like they're on Amazon Instant for $2/episode, and iTunes for $2/ep or
$15 for a 15-episode season.

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era86
This is pretty neat! Work that nostalgia magic!

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woopdy
Yes, can't quite get season 5, or 4-9th.

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voltagex_
Just hit the goal, still rising fast.

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Xdes
I dislike books. There are better mediums, like games, for conveying
knowledge.

~~~
gravity13
I agree. Books are so 20th century. I prefer going after things that are the
same color.

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benihana
I grew up with this show, I always looked forward to watching it in school,
and I'd watch it at home as well. I loved the adventures and special effects,
and just adored watching it.

Having said that, this show did absolutely nothing for me when it came to
reading. It didn't inspire me to read, it didn't get me reading, it didn't
make reading exciting for me. None of those elementary school programs (Book-
it, book fairs, Reading Rainbow) did. I didn't start reading books until I
found books that didn't condescend to and patronize children. When I
discovered there were books with real situations and characters that acted
real (and featured violence and sex and bad language), that's when I realized
that books were good.

It's odd, enjoying this show for its entertainment value, but realizing it was
completely ineffective in its goal, especially when so many people seem to
think this is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

~~~
pessimizer
My mother gave me a blank check for book fairs and those Scholastic order
sheets, and I blame it almost entirely for anything that I've done since. It
only dawned on me as an adult how expensive that investment must have been for
her at the time. The way I found as a child to find books that didn't
condescend to or patronize children was to raise my reading level by reading
many, many, books that did accept that I was a child and not a little adult.

I was a few years too old for Reading Rainbow (I was already 7 when it came
out) but I enjoyed the theme song and that Kunta Kinte was reading children's
books.

~~~
sliverstorm
My mother gave me a library card, a bicycle, and carte blanche to spend all
day every weekend at the library.

I didn't quite realize how much time I spent there until I started having
trouble finding books I hadn't read in the YA racks.

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Hario
In for $50 and a T-shirt.

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mjolk
I really feel like this is off-topic.

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drcube
What topic is that?

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mjolk
The official guidelines of what dictates on/off topic:
[http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

I guess one could argue that "good hackers" would be interested in indulging
nostalgia for a popular children's show in America from 1980s, but that's
really pushing it.

~~~
pessimizer
You don't have to argue, you just count the upvotes.

~~~
mjolk
Upvotes aren't important and do not indicate that something is good content.

