A Canarsie principal has an interesting way of encouraging his students to read.
Every June, Mitchell S. Pinsky dons shorts, a helmet and sunglasses to ride his bike around P.S. 115, the Daniel Mucatel School – one lap for every 10,000 pages his students read that school year.
Last week, he circled the school, located at East 92nd Street and Avenue M, a whopping 65 times.
There cheering him on were amused teachers, school staffers and students, many of whom hopped on their own bikes to ride with the administrator.
One enthusiastic student on the sidelines even held a sign proclaiming, “Go, Mr. Pinsky, Go!”
Pinsky says students look forward to the bike-a-thon all year and borrow countless books from the school library in hope of making Pinsky ride a few extra laps.
Explaining how the number of laps is calculated, Pinsky said, “The teachers and the kids tally the number of pages that they read on a weekly basis.”
Pinsky said students look back fondly on the annual bike-a-thon.
“This is significant for the kids,” he said. “You run into kids a couple years later and they’ll remember that. They’ll remember their favorite teacher and that.”
