Evening star., 1955-05-30
Bernard Fifth Graders
Say Johnny CAN Read

why Can / tommy Redu! is
a loaded question to a group Of
militant fifth graders at the
Barnard School.
They say Johnny CAN read,
and have undertaken to prove it.
Eight of the children have
written letters to the Editor of
The Star protesting that the
series of articles by DR.. Rudolph
Flesch now appearing in The
Star is unfair"
The students-four boys and
four girls-got the idea after
reading the first article of the
series, published last Sunday.
Ilene Sinsky started it. She
clipped the Flesch article and
brought it to class Monday morn
ing. During the regular news
nd-discussion period. she told
about the article. Among other
things, it said:
Our children don't read An
derson's Fairy Tales any more
or The Arabian Nights or Mark
Twain or Louisa May Alcott or
the Mary Poppins books or the
DR.. Doolittle books or anything
interesting and worthwhile, be-
cause they can't" e
Read All These Books"
But I've read all these books"
Ilene told her teacher, Miss
Katherine Ihrig. So, it appeared,
had a lot Of the other children
in the class. Some had read one
or more. several had read them
all.
II think DR.. Flesch ought to
go see some schools before he
starts to write about them" said
Allen Mushinsky. HE hasn't
been around enough"
What about people who don't
have children" asked Joyce COL
well. "They will think that DR..
Flesch is right"
So Miss Ihrig suggested that
for the benefit of such people,
some of the students sit down
and write a letter to the Editor
of The Star. describing the books
they had read.
They decided that each would
take different book and de-
scribe it's contents in the letter
They wrote rough drafts in pen
Gil, submitted them to Miss Ihrig
for correction and then copied
them neatly in ink.
II didn't have to correct more
than three or four misspellings
and few grammatical mistakes
in any of the letters" Miss Ihrig
said. They misspelled such
words as disappear. language,
usual and disagreement, some
times just from carelesSness.'
Plenty of Others, Too
Some of the books, the STU
dents explained, belong to the
school. Others come from the
public library and some they
have at home. OF course they
have plenty of other books too.
like Jack and the Three Stiles, ="
THE Dragons of Blueland,'
"Grimm's Fairy Tales Aida
and Carmen, "a Child's Garden
of Verses" a James Thurber
fable and Famous Planes and
Famous Flights"
In their letters, Ilene told the
story of Ali Baba and the Forty
Thieves from The Arabian
Nights; Jerry Zivan described
the adventures of Tom Sawyer
and Huck Finn and wrote that
II hope this letter tells you why
I think Dr. Flesch is wrong"
Lawrence johnson told two OF
Hans Christian Andersen'S fairy
tales. one of them about the
emperor who banished the night
ingale because it sang happy
songs and sad songs and then
brought it back because he
found out that sad songs help
to make people thoughtful"
Joyce Colwell described the
characters in Little Women;
Allen Mushinsky wrote that
TON Sawyer helped him to
learn about "the people who
lived near the Mississippi River
about 1900"
Tells of Sinbad the Sailor
Joe Bradley told the story Of
Sinbad the Sailor from "The
Arabian Nights" and declared
that "Dr, Flesch has not visited
enough schools to know about
reading because our class ha:
read every book on that list"
Priscilla Cummings described
the intelligent parrot and the
gigantic moth in one of the DR.
Doolittle books; Lois Goodman
told of the cat who could an
swer more questions than thu
king in a Mary Poppins book.
The class has clipped the Sc
ries OF articles on why Johnn.
Can't Read" from The Sta