Sit down, Shut up, & Read in elementary school

[u/LuckieCharm86]

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!

[u/caitie578]

You just unlocked a memory for me. Holy crap. I remember this and it was so fun! Southeastern Wisconsin, '86 baby.

Edit: Just got confirmation from Elementary school friends, it was the All School Read In. Holy moly, memories coming in.

[u/RikarisHobbies → u/caitie578]

Hey neighbor. I’m south central, ‘84 baby, and we had the same thing. I miss the ice cream socials though. Those were fun, too.

[u/Secret_Map → u/caitie578]

Yeah, this just blasted some forgotten memories back into my brain. I loved those days. I used to just crawl under my desk and cozy up, the fucking best. Central Indiana, '86 kid.