Editorial
Looking to the Future With The Reading Teacher: 900-Year-Old Sheep and Papa na come!

Robert B. Cooter, Jr.

J. Helen Perkins

About the authors

Several years ago, as part of a study abroad course comparing reading instruction in Great Britain and the United States, American reading teachers participated in extensive visits to London schools then went on to Edinburgh for a look at Scottish education practices. The final destination was Oxford University where international literacy policies and their effects on western learning were discussed with several of the dons.

Near the end of the experience the group visited Oxford's famous Bodleian Library where we met its distinguished head, known as Bodley's Librarian, who served as our tour guide. A rare experience indeed! The tour commenced from the Bodleian's Board Room where many staff meetings were held; in fact, it was the first so-called boardroom in the world (originally named for its table made from one huge plank). We continued through many of the library's various stacks (stacks are another Oxford invention, where bookshelves are on casters so that they may be “stacked” to save space).

Finally, our guide took us through the ancient Radcliffe Camera, below ground level past catacomb-like rooms, and into the medieval stacks. Easing a book of olden vintage from one of the shelves he gingerly opened the treasure and said, “The book I am now holding was written in the 11th century by a monk. There were no printing presses then, of course, so the only way one could reproduce a book was by hand, one of several reasons why books were so precious. Note that the pages of this book are not really paper as we know it,” he continued, “but parchment made from animal skin. In this instance, the skins used were from sheep.

“What you may not know,” he continued, “is that one could only get a single sheet of parchment from each sheep. This particular book has some 186 separate sheets of parchment, so it quite literally took a flock of sheep to assemble this one book.” There was an audible gasp from one of the tour members as she considered the great cost of these organic links with history.

Bodley's Librarian next drew our attention to the solid covers of the book. He gently knocked on the cover and the sound ricocheted around the chamber. “Covers on ancient books needed to be heavy, and were made of wood covered by cloth or leather. Our modern tradition of ‘hard cover’ books dates back to these early times.” One student asked why the books needed to be so heavy. The Librarian's answer was intriguing. “One of the characteristics of parchment,” he explained, “is that the skin has a kind of memory. Even after 900 years it wants to go back to being a sheep! Without steady, gentle pressure from the heavy covers, the pages would soon begin to curl back into their original sheep form and ruin the book. Conversely, with the aid of steady pressure from the hard covers, these 900-year-old sheepskins continue to be imbued with the ability to transport the author's message into the future…for what has now been nearly a millennium.”

The transformation of common pelts into organic time machines of thought is a notion that has stayed with us over the intervening years as a parable for the many truisms in reading education. There is a need for all of us in reading to maintain “steady pressure” on our field to produce effective reading instruction for all children. We must continue to find better, more effective ways of teaching children to read, then share breakthroughs with our colleagues. That latter responsibility is the central role of The Reading Teacher (RT) and the tradition we inherit as its editors. In this editorial we wish to share our aspirations as we look to the future.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

We believe that literacy is the gateway to opportunity, social justice, and freedom. Because of its prestige and worldwide audience, The Reading Teacher is arguably the most important professional journal in reading education and, thus, a critical tool for those serving children. Its readership of teachers, school administrators, literacy leaders, researchers, and college professors relies on the journal as a research-based information pipeline for innovation and excellence. RT helps professionals assist millions of children in becoming proficient readers. Therefore, our first priority is to maintain those pillars of excellence that have made this journal a must-have component of the reading educator's professional library.

There are several traditions of The Reading Teacher that we feel must be continued and strengthened. The journal has been introduced to many readers over the years at teachers' colleges as a primary source for learning cutting-edge teaching strategies. Teachers in their first years of practice have found RT to be a compass that guides them through the challenging waters of a new profession. Likewise, RT helps veterans validate (or question) their classroom practices, learn of research trends, and discover ways to adapt instruction for students with special needs. Thousands of principals, curriculum coordinators, and other school leaders rely on The Reading Teacher to help inform their policies and plans for continuing professional development. For reading researchers worldwide, having one's investigation results published in RT has been an important achievement.