The Final Bell Rings for Weekly Reader, a Classroom Staple

[Pryderi]

A very sad day


http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/the-final-bell-rings-for-weekly-reader-a-classroom-staple/

The current-events magazine Weekly Reader, a classroom fixture since 1928, will not be returning from summer vacation, its new owner, Scholastic, confirmed this week.

Instead, Scholastic will fold the publication into its own weekly magazine, Scholastic News; the first issues will be co-branded with both names, Kyle Good, a spokeswoman for Scholastic, wrote in an e-mail.

The news was conveyed to employees in May, when the Weekly Reader offices in White Plains were closed, but was first reported by The New York Post this week. The Post reported that only five of the 60 employees there would be moving to Scholastic.

Weekly Reader for generations has been summarizing current events, tailored to the specific grade level of its student readers. Depending on how you view it, the effort could be seen as talking down to students, or as holding their hands as they are introduced to the complexities of the adult world they soon will be joining.

[mzteris]

1. awwwwwww - I LOVED that.

I really did learn a lot from it. It broadened my small-town education horizons.

[Kaleva]

2. Enjoyed reading that back in the '60's!

[annabanana]

3. Oh my.. No more Goofus and Gallant?

The Timberlands?

A real genuine piece of Americana going going gone...

[Capn Sunshine]

5. I think G& G was Highlights?

[annabanana]

7. Oh yeah, You're right...

(getting old here)
Weekly Reader was that little break for "current events". I always expected it to be more interesting than it was. Still, it served as a diversion.

[Arkansas Granny]

4. What a shame. We always looked forward to the day each week when the new Weekly Readers

were handed out. I just loved them.

[Capn Sunshine]

6. Happy Memories in the 50's

I had a subscription over the summer, and it was so cool to get something new to read in the mail every week.

[RebelOne]

12. I have a bunch of them from the '40s. Yes, I am that old. n/t

[pipi_k]

8. It wasn't just during the school year...

my parents got me a summer subscription too.

Baby boomer, sorry for the kids who will never have the pleasure of "My Weekly Reader"

[Brother Buzz]

9. My Weekly Reader smelled funny

Like ink, or something. Not near as fun as our favorite, Ditto sheets.

[eShirl]

10. I got it in the early 70s

I vaguely remember stories in it about Nixon visiting China and exchanging a pair of something (musk oxen?) for a pair of giant pandas; Shirley Chisolm; Vietnam POWs returning

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. Got mine in the late 70s early 80s. I am pretty sure the space shuttle was covered. Loved

reading those things!

[Baitball Blogger]

11. Indeed.

It was the only thing that my parents allowed me to select as many items as I liked. Most of the books were under two dollars!

[surrealAmerican]

13. Even before I read the article ...

... I figured that Scholastic probably bought them out to shut them down. Now there is no competition for "Scholastic News" which, unless it's improved considerably in the last few years, is pretty darn awful.