As school progresses, so do the students.  The fragile minds of these children are considered sponges that absorb all knowledge.  Many of these sponges however have selective “absorption.”  This means that many kids absorb different topics from different subjects in different ways.  Now this can be a good thing: some memorize mathematical equations and know them by heart, while some of them memorize important dates in history and can state all of the facts.  But before children can absorb anything, it is required that they learn how to read correctly.  This is a problem for many children, however.  This can be caused by learning or reading disabilities such as dyslexia, but some, however, just don’t care about reading.   As technology advances, attention span, as well as retention time, begins to shorten.  On average, attention span for teenagers is fifteen seconds. With an attention span, such as this, it is no wonder that children are not interested in reading or learning.  This is one of the reasons that in America, reading levels of many children, especially high-schoolers, are dropping at an alarming rate.  This is why I have put together a new reading incentive program that will work for multiple grade levels.  I call it “Project See Spot Run.”

This project has earned its name for soon-to-be obvious reasons and has many steps to help the students of American high schools reach higher than a sixth-grade reading level.  These steps may be costly for many of these high schools across the nation, but cost is not really important when it comes to the education of America’s children.  Government funds for this project will be available but would be each individual high school’s responsibility to apply.  Once “Project See Spot Run” has been put into action, many parents will be reluctant to allow this program to continue any further than the first phase.  These parents will have already signed a document at the beginning of their child’s school year, however, that gives their consent to the school to enroll their child in “Project See Spot Run.”  This document will be necessary to attend school.  If not signed and returned, the child will not be allowed to attend classes until the document is signed and returned to the school.  This document will help prevent any legal action from taking place due to the fact that parents will sign anything that has an “X” and a line.
I believe that with this document signed, it will be simple for the government to send money to every county in order to provide the materials for “Project See Spot Run.”  After the materials have been provided for, it will be time to begin the first phase of this soon-to-be famous technique for getting children to read.  The first phase is quite simple and only uses three basic materials per classroom.  This first phase will be known as the “Dunce Phase.” The materials for this would be the “Dunce Cap,” a small stool, and a desk.  The main idea of this phase is the basically bring back the “Dunce Cap.”  The “Dunce Cap,” for many who do not know, was used as a disciplinary technique for academic failures and misbehaving in the classroom.  This was known as one of the best ways to get kids to actually learn the material being taught as well as learning how to handle humiliation.  While the student sits on the “Dunce Stool” while wearing the cap, they must read the text aloud in front of the class until there is no mispronunciations and incorrect grammar heard by the teacher.  If the students still do not have an improved reading level after this experience, it is on the much harsher level of punishment of phase two.
Phase two is known as “Dunce Phase V.2.”  This phase is almost identical in punishment to phase one but has a much larger audience.  During lunch, the student is made to sit in the middle of the cafeteria wearing a “Dunce Cap” while sitting on a stool.  As they sit there, they are made to read aloud from the same text that they failed to read aloud in class.  This punishment will be more severe than phase one because it is more than just his classmates, it’s up to half of the high school.  The same criteria must be met as in the first phase.  This means no mispronunciations and no incorrect grammar or they will be forced to do the same thing the next available student school day.  If phase two is carried out for more than three days per student, phase three, the harshest of the three phases, will be carried out.
Phase three, or as I like to call it, “The Box,” will be a small shed on the school grounds that is essentially a sensory deprivation chamber, except instead of cutting off all of the senses, it will only cut out the outside interferences that typically distract children from reading.  Once phase two has carried on for three days for said student without any significant change, the student will arrive the next day and be asked to remove his socks and shoes.  Upon removing their socks and shoes, they will then be led out to “The Box.”  Inside this shed will be broken glass scattered across the floor save but a small circle (approximately six feet in diameter), many lengths of razor wire around the room, many swords and axes hanging low from the ceiling, a small reading lamp, a small bucket for…physical needs, and finally, a bookshelf containing many books of varying length (though the smaller ones will typically consist of around 350-400 pages each.)   There will be no windows and no overhead lights.  This will mean that besides the small reading lamp, the room will be encased in darkness.  The student will remain within this room until the end of the school day.  While conceiving this phase, I almost neglected to put a way to get the student food during lunch time since the door will be locked.  There will be a small slot in the door that will be very similar to the slots on the doors in a prison’s solitary confinement.  This slot will only be used to give the student their food and to remove their dirty tray when they are done.  This way they do not receive very many distractions from the outside world.   While in the room, the student must choose a book and read it until a school official comes to release them around twenty minutes till three.  The remaining twenty minutes will be spent giving the student a quick test.  The school will have a ten-question test for each book in the room.  The student must inform the school of the book that they chose and will have fifteen minutes to take the test.  The remaining five minutes will be reserved for proctor to have a chance to grade the test.  If the student missed more than three questions, they will be forced to return to “The Box” on the next available student school day.  This final phase, I do believe, will soon end the low reading level that has been plaguing this nation for far too long.  If the child is still reluctant to read after three days in “The Box,” then there is no more hope for the child and they will be slaughtered publicly in front of their peers.
It is sad to say that 58% of all American children in grade eight or above will most likely reach phases one and two, only about 17% of the original 58% will reach phase three, and the final 1% of all L.R.L. (Low Reading Level) students will be publicly executed.  This may be a large amount of America’s youth but it is a small price to pay to get our country to the top of the list for most literate countries.  The consequences of a county not participating in “Project See Spot Run” will be that they lose funding for anything else they have such as sports and other school-sponsored extracurricular activities.  These activities will not be considered as much of a loss as the loss of American literacy.  Though the consequences for not reading properly are extremely harsh and humiliating, I believe them to be extremely fair and will help to improve the literacy rate in this great nation known as the United States of America.