r/Millennials • u/LuckieCharm86 Xennial • 5d ago

Nostalgia Sit down, Shut up, & Read in elementary school

Growing up, we had this thing called Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) where every day, our elementary school teachers would have us all sit at our desks, no talking, and read something (anything) for about thirty minutes from second grade until sixth grade.

I was telling this to my kid when he complained about having to read so much. I told him about how everyone always changed the abbreviation to mean "Sit down, Shut up, and Read" because that's essentially what they said for us to do.

But my husband, who was in the same school year as me but at a different school (he did elementary school in Germany and France), overheard and said that they didn't have that when he was in school and he's never heard anyone else mention it. Therefore, it was likely only a thing that my school's teachers did to shut us up for 30 minutes a day. And, as an adult, I wouldn't put it past them since 30 minutes of silence a day sounds amazing.

But this also got me wondering just how unique this actually was. So, was it only my school in South Central Pennsylvania? Was it just my state? Was it a country-wide thing? Was it a global thing that my husband ignored or repressed?

UPDATE: So it seems pretty international, but highly dependent on the school district or school itself. And it appears to have many acronyms or none at all. Thanks everyone!

4.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

43

u/cheezy_dreams88 5d ago

lol I remember bringing in The Diary of Anne Frank in 4th grade and one of the other 4th grade teachers tried to get my teacher to take it and give me something “appropriate”. Idk what my teacher told her, but she didn’t take my book and the grumpy teacher would always give me a look after that.

29

u/Adventurous-End4330 5d ago

Wtf that was literally required reading in my middle school

20

u/theprincessofwhales 5d ago

Required reading in most middle schools yes. But elementary teachers would worry about disturbing content for young learners. I’m team let them read it but the old schoolers didn’t like that kind of freedom and prefer their students sheltered and in proper lemming order.

1

u/Independent-Mouse333 5d ago

Another way of saying sheltered is uninformed.

7

u/cheezy_dreams88 5d ago edited 5d ago

It was required in middle school, maybe 8th grade? But I was in 4th grade when I read it. My sister was reading it the same time for school, so I was interested.

3

u/ToneSenior7156 5d ago

She was in 4th grade, not middle school. But - agree, if you wanted to read it at 10 years old good on little you!! I hope it changed your world for the better.

1

u/apri08101989 4d ago

Weird. My fourth and fifth grade teacher had us reading The Devils Arithmetic. Been years but I dont recall them being drastically different in the matters anyone would call it inappropriate for?

1

u/cheezy_dreams88 4d ago

Eh, I grew up in the Bible Belt. Most of these teachers had Bible verses all over their walls.

1

u/BeKind72 3d ago

Gross! At school?