It's not about levels. It's about the drama of the book meeting the life-drama of the child

The other day I heard myself say to a teachers' meeting that rather than worry about a child's 'level' or supposed 'lack' of knowledge, think of how a book or poem might relate to that child's psychodrama. Pompous I know. But I kinda believe that.

What I meant is that every one of us, no matter our background, no matter what 'level' we have been put on, lives a life that is in its own way a drama. Books and poems and plays are dramas. When we read or view the two dramas (our own and the one in the book or poem or drama) intermingle. We relate them. This applies whether we have read 100s of books and have education pouring out of our ears, or if we are 6 years old and been designated special needs or whatever. We all have that drama of how we relate to the world and to other people. This is what we bring to books, plays and poems.

As authors or teachers it's our job, then, to think of the psychodramas - in the child/children and in the books, plays and poems and figure out how these intermingle and inter-relate.

That's what I meant when I heard myself say that.