The machine metaphor has positive implications for those who benefit from a tight structure. The superintendent in my district recently hired a new director of reading/language arts. She would like all intermediate teachers in the district to level their reading libraries in their classrooms in the same way. She chose Fountas and Pinnell as her model to use for a leveling system. Some of the teachers already were using alternate leveling approaches such as Lexile or DRP. The teachers now all have to conform to the same system. This will be favorable for the children when they move throughout the intermediate grades or the district and, it will be easier for professionals to discuss independent reading levels of children. On the other hand, she is asking that the books in the media center that were originally put aside for specific grade levels be broken up into groups of about five books instead of class sets of twenty-five or thirty. She wants them distributed across different, appropriate grade levels. This will prevent teachers from reading these books with a whole class and incorporating the wonderful divergent activities that they usually plan. I understand that our director is trying to make certain that children are reading on their suitable levels, but this will inhibit teachers from integrating reading with subjects such as social studies. Fifth grade teachers in my building often use My Brother Sam is Dead when they teach about the Revolutionary War. I’m hoping that she will step outside of this metaphor and allow them to use the book. Maybe the teachers will be able to convince her that they will not neglect to instruct their guided reading groups that are below-grade-level when utilizing this book with the whole class.