Yesterday was World Book Day. The only day when it’s normal to pass kids on the street (and sometimes adults) dressed as Harry Potter, Wally and a whole bunch of other characters from books and comics.
The day is intended to be a celebration of reading and children’s books in particular. All children are entitled to a £1 book token to redeem against a variety of specially commissioned titles or against the total cost of another book.
Sounds good, right? Well, not necessarily, and the day is not without its critics.
Some authors suggest that reading for pleasure should be celebrated throughout the year and having a ‘special day’ simply highlights the lack of importance placed on reading for pleasure as part of normal school and family life.
Some parents dread the thought of yet another school dress up day and the pressure this can place on families to invest time and/or money on the perfect outfit.
Some kids simply hate dressing up.
The one group of people who seem to love World Book Day are supermarket bosses. The number of special dressing up costumes available in store in the lead up to World Book Day has exploded over the last few years and is almost on a par with Halloween in terms of the number of outfits available.
The problem with lots of these outfits are that they can be relatively expensive, cheaply produced, un-washable (seriously, kids’ clothes that you can’t throw in the washing machine!!) and have little to do with books.
I have to admit to being one of those parents who walked into Tesco and bought two outfits straight off the rack. A Peter Pan outfit for the 3 year old (he’d never heard of Peter Pan up to this point) and a Poe Dameron outfit for the 7 year old (a character from the new Star Wars film - technically not book related.) They were both happy enough and I didn’t have to spend hours and cash on crafty items that would probably fall apart by first playtime. Especially as neither particularly enjoy crafts and it would have been up to me to make it!
Personally, I love the idea of World Book Day. A day spent reading, discussing books and taking part in book-ish activities. The 7 year old took part in a performance poetry assembly at school and it was fantastic! Approximately 120 year 3 and 4 kids writing and performing poetry and, based on the looks on the majority of faces, loving every minute of it.
I’m not convinced, however, by the need for kids to dress up at every available opportunity. When you add up the number of non uniform days our school (like many others) has, the financial costs start to mount up. Not only that, but there will always be that one child whose parents forgot and are then forced to be the only child at school in uniform for the whole day.
One of the reasons for school uniform is to create a level playing field. By giving kids a free reign to dress as anything it will always highlight those that have spent a lot of money or had a lot of help. If kids were given the chance to create an outfit in school it would create a level playing field for all involved, take the pressure away from parents and encourage creativity and co-operation within the school environment.
Sadly, given the limit on school time and resources to do anything beyond the currently strict curriculum, this seems unlikely.
It's a tricky one isn't it? I would much rather spend time or money on a costume for World Book Day, which can be as elaborate or simple as you can think of. One of my boys went as a Viking, wearing an old curtain, with a cereal box helmet and sword. The other went as a member of the Secret Seven with an S.S.badge on his non uniform jumper. Much better this, than the hideous Halloween custom of dressing to scare or be scared. I can't think of a better reason to have a dressing up day than to celebrate books and reading, so I am glad that our school embraced the idea in the way that it did. When I started teaching a million years ago, every age group in every class had daily opportunities to read, make stories, write, draw, paint and create. Sadly those days are long gone. The current obsession with assessment, SATS and the rest has put paid to all that. So I welcome a day a year when books and reading gets a big thumbs up.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Kim. It's difficult. I love the idea of World Book Day but like many other things it's been taken over by commercialism. It would probably be easier if I had a child who enjoyed dressing up! I'd rather drop the dress up as an Egyptian/Victorian/ambition days and focus on WBD.
DeleteMe too. And I agree that big business has got in on the act. Of course they assume that everyone's favourite book character is the Gruffalo or something else that they can make a costume for. Sometimes your favourite character might be someone who doesn't wear anything special, but they can't make money out of that. I remember when Luke's favourite books were the Alfie and My Naughty Little Sister stories. The reason he liked them was that those characters were 'real' children. Brilliant books, but hard to make a costume for, if you want people to say, "Wow."
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