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7 Oct 2016

Prologue: Becoming Becoming a Nation of Readers

Ian A. G. Wilkinson, Judith A. Scott, Elfrieda H. Hiebert, & Richard C. Anderson,

Journal Article
Published

Wilkinson, I.A.G., Scott, J.A., Hiebert, E.H., & Anderson, R.C. (2016).  Prologue:  Becoming Becoming a Nation of Readers. Journal of Education, 196(3), 1-5.

Abstract

In this foreword to the special issue of the Journal of Education celebrating the 30th anniversary of the publication of Becoming a Nation of Readers: The Report of the Commission on Reading (BNR) (Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, & Wilkinson, 1985), we share the backstory of the making of BNR. We view our role as that of commentators, narrators, and storytellers. As members of the Staff of the Commission on Reading (Elfrieda H. Hiebert, Judith A. Scott, and Ian A. G. Wilkinson) and as the Chairman of the Commission (Richard C. Anderson) our task, as we see it, is to tell the untold story of how BNR came into being and to reflect on what we were able to achieve given the circumstances of the time, what we wish we could have achieved, what issues went under the table, and what lessons can be learned from the endeavor.