Posted on 07/27/2010 1:12:37 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
The following LETTER is from a 62-year-old grandmother who is now a full-time college student...If you already know the value of phonics, this account could still be passed on to inspire someone else...For those still not clear about phonics versus whole word, this account explains some complex issues in a personal way:----
“I started school in 1953, in the height of the ‘Dick and Jane’ era. I loved books from what my mother tells me, but by the time I was being taught to ‘read,’ it was whole-word and word association (picture has a name). As the books got harder I could no longer keep up with the words and then there were the missing words, and, is, but, were, am, too, to, etc. I never remember seeing a Dolch list. I just shut down and got by.
I graduated High School with a 3rd grade reading level in 1966 and floundered until I was going to have my first child. I didn't want my children to suffer from the inability to read. We had a door to door service come by once a month that sold many different things from a catalog, The Fuller Brush Man. In his catalog was "Learn to read through phonics" (don't quote me on that because I truly can't remember the name). It was a box of letters you cut out, two 33-1/3 records and a book of instructions. I couldn't read the instructions, so I played the album over and over again until I got the hang of what they were telling me to do. Each letter had a sound, each non-vowel also had a sound and so on.
Well, I did learn to read, somewhat. Enough to read my daughters easy books. It wasn't until I was 28 yrs old that my neighbor figured out I couldn't read. She gave me a book (200 pg) and told me to come to coffee every day and bring the book. I did and that is where my true education on phonics began. She bought me the biggest dictionary she could find, we started from page one in the book and looked up every word until I could sound them out. It took almost a year to read the book, but when I did I was thrilled. My next book was "Valley of the Dolls" which I read from cover to cover and I haven't stopped yet.
When a child shows interest in wanting to read, it makes a difference as to how they learn each word. Teaching letter sounds first, then putting those sounds together to form a word becomes essential. It does not make any difference what the word means at the moment. It matters that they have succeeded in making a word that they can say, recognize, and something they can spell. This leads to sounding out and spelling words that they do not recognize.
I have three daughters that are avid readers, good spellers. All have attended college. So now I’m a a grandmother of nine grown or almost grown grandchildren, I attend college full-time, will graduate in May 2011 with my AA degree and move on to ASU where I will go after my BA in English/Creative Writing and a minor in Reading. I am in Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society and have been on the Dean's List every semester. I have just been accepted to enroll in the Honors Courses at our college.
Without the effort I had put in to learn to read, I would still be getting by and without the training I received from a caring neighbor I would not have learned phonics. I feel our educational system is cheating the kids that attend school, pushing them through ill equipped for what is ahead of them in school, the work place and the world in general. Wake up, America, take charge and get the system to work for the kids.
Thanks for letting me have my say.
Sharon Maupin"
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[For more about reading, follow link to “42: Reading Resources” on Improve-Education.org.]
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When I was in the third grade my mother had me switched to a teacher that taught phonics-based reading. Her name was Mrs. Eldridge. This was in Seattle in 1943.
I aspire to be “the neighbor”
not a Senator, a congresman, a community organizer, grants administrator or executive director...
the kindness and presistance of one neighbor (it took a year to read the first book) changed the lives of a Mother, three daughters and nine grandchildren.
We paid for our children to go to a private school for their elementary education (K-5). The school only allowed phonics.
They are voracious readers, just like their mother and me.
Dear Ministers A, B, C, D, and E:
The Hispanic children with whom I am associated are very intelligent and motivated, yet, I am very concerned about the appalling reading and arithmetic skills that I find during the Tuesday night tutoring sessions. One child ( about 12 years old) is completely illiterate and innumerate. Nearly all the children struggle with reading. All of the children are grossly delayed in learning their math facts.
Of the children with whom I have worked, all have a poor grasp of phonics and none ( regardless of grade) have mastered basic math facts ( addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). To compound the problem, their homework requires mastery of these basics even though the children have not mastered them!
If it is child abuse to send a child who cannot ski up to the top of a mountain and push him off onto a double black diamond trail, then it is child abuse for a public school teacher to assign homework to a child that is utterly impossible for him to complete. The frustration, guilt, and depression on these children’s faces is plainly evident. Every day in school and every evening at home with homework must be a minor hell of despair for them. Why would we be surprised that too many drop out at the first opportunity?
On Tuesday before the Christmas school holiday, I helped a girl with the addition of mixed fractions. This was her formal homework assignment for that day. How is it possible for a child to add mixed fractions if she has absolutely NO idea what the denominator or numerator of a simple fraction represent? How can she find common denominators when for multiplication and division she needs help drawing lines and dots on paper for her to group? How can she convert improper fractions to proper fractions and whole numbers when she adds and subtracts with her fingers and can not carry a value from the ten’s column to the one’s column? In other words, the assignment sent home for this child was **impossible** for her to understand. She told me that she is given homework assignments like this every day! This child is literally being pushed off a double black diamond educational mountain every day when she is not even a beginner. I call this child abuse.
What I am witnessing is SYSTEMATIC EDUCATIONAL MALPRACTICE and CHILD ABUSE!
I suggest that the following begin IMMEDIATELY:
· These children need a DAILY ,SATURDAY, VACATION, and an ALL- SUMMER afterschool educational program in highly structured and systematic phonics.
· DAILY drills in math facts.
· Appropriate rewards, certificates, and ceremonies to recognize the 100% mastery of specific levels of achievement in phonics and math facts.
· The children MUST NOT MOVE ON UNTIL THEY HAVE MASTERY OF A LEVEL!!!
· The older children must have 100% mastery of the fundamentals of arithmetic before moving to fractions. Each level of mathematics needs 100% mastery if there is to be any success on the next level.
· The parents must be instructed on how to create a learning centered home with TV, DVDs, I-pods, games, and Internet completely restricted until the child fully completes his weekly assignment goals. These goals must be rational and achievable.
· These children will need volunteers to pick them up and take them home from any afterschool program. Many of their parents are working more than one or two jobs and it is likely that many would find it impossible to bring their children to an afterschool program. Some may need tutoring in their homes.
Long term solution would include a combination of the following:
· Totally restructuring the public schools.
· KIPP charter schools or something similar.
· The church opens its own private tuition-free schools.
Although the Tuesday evening tutoring program is functioning as best as can be expected under the circumstances, it is far too little to do much good. It is like aiming a water pistol at a raging forest fire. The futures of these children are literally being burned up in slow motion. These children need INTENSIVE and SYSTEMITIZED INTERVENTION!!! They need it IMMEDIATELY!
The problem is a failure of the school to teach phonics in a systematic and rational manner, and a failure to demand that children master the basic levels in math before moving forward. It is a failure of the schools to properly group these children into an appropriate levels of mastery. It is a failure of the schools to assign the appropriate skill level of homework to these children.
Please forward this letter to those in the church and community with the authority to make a serious change. Children should never be neglected and emotionally abused in this manner.
Respectfully,
Wintertime
The education establishment has a pathological commitment to its absurd and profoundly destructive pedagogical theories in every area and certainly won’t change in any relevant time period. I know that you focus on reading, but competence in math, writing, history, etc. is also being denied to students in the government school system by our highly trained education professionals. And, then, there is the self-destructive sexual and other behavior that is promoted to children throughout the government school system...
The system has to be completely destroyed. Only a “Carthaginian Peace” will put us back on the right road. “School reform” never will.
Before my kids started school, I taught them to read with Sam Bluemenfeld’s Alpha Phonics. It’s such a fantastic method - completely phonics.
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http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=alpha+phonics&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=13169882727195409046&ei=XEdPTNvIIcL58Ab5mozIAQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDIQ8wIwAw#ps-sellers
Phonics was the only method taught in my 1950s Catholic elementary school, and, I suspect, the only method taught in any American Catholic school at the time.
Almost all of my teachers through 12 years of Catholic school were Franciscan nuns — fine, intelligent women and exellent teachers. Many of the people charged with teaching our young reading and many other subjects today, particularly in public schools, are dolts
The church opens its own private tuition-free schools.
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Would have to be one wealthy church. Who would pay the teachers?
I credit it with a reading comprehension and retention rate in advance of my peers all the way through school— after all, I had a two-year jump on the illiterate tykes with whom I started first grade!— and my love of recreational reading which persists to this day.
Neither my sister nor I have been blessed with children of our own, but the set remains available for use should friends or extended family request it.
The existing model is socialist. The foundation is corrupt and can not be reformed.
Honestly,...I am EXASPERATED! I feel like Jeremiah warning the Israelites of the coming catastrophe.
When will conservatives finally understand that government schools can NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT be reformed? They must be abolished. Simply by attending godless and socialist government schools, children learn to love godlessness, socialism, and government!
The only solution is for conservatives to open private conservative schools. They will need to be tuition-free initially because that is the tuition charged by government schools. Conservatives will need to match the government cartel-set price of “free”.
I suggest the following:
***Conservatives would organize educational foundations.
***The foundations would award grants to conservative teachers who would open tuition-free one-room schools in their homes, day care centers, or small rented spaces. ( The savings on not having to maintain prison-like structures would be very very great!)
***The foundations would certify the teacher, inspect the schools, approve the curriculum, and test the students.
*** The foundations would run larger community-wide science labs, sports programs, and theater, music, and art programs. ( The government monopoly on “bush-league” or “farm-team” sports must be broken. It is amazing the amount of “rah-rah” support for government schools is due to this monopoly that government has on entrance to professional team sports.)
*** The education foundations would politically organize the parents and community to work for complete abolishment of all government schooling. Programs such as theater, art, music, and sports could be transferred to the Department of Parks and Recreation or completely privatized in a manner that represents our current volunteer fire departments.
In five to ten years our nation's college classrooms would be filled to the brim with students capable of defending their faith and our nation's founding principles. Their Marxist professors would wither before their righteousness. Christian and conservative clubs, volunteer programs, fraternities, and sororities would abound. In 10 more years these young adults would be taking their places in universities, our cultural institutions, business, and politics. In 20 more years we would see a complete change in our culture.
Why don't conservatives see or understand this?
Would have to be one wealthy church. Who would pay the teachers?
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How much were nuns paid? There really are such things as “vocation” and “callings”.
The Wichita, Kansas, Catholic dioceses offers **EVERY** Catholic child in its boundaries a TUITION-FREE K-12 schooling.
Yes, it does! If you don't believe me, do a Google on the words: Catholic schools, Wichita, Kansas, free.
So?...How do they do it? Huh? Maybe Christians should ask them. They likely aren't any richer than the rest of us.
How much were nuns paid? There really are such things as “vocation” and “callings”.
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Well, the reason a Catholic education has become so expensive is that we do not have that many nuns now.
The Wichita, Kansas, Catholic dioceses offers **EVERY** Catholic child in its boundaries a TUITION-FREE K-12 schooling.
^^
That is quite amazing.
I don’t feel the need to do a search; I’m sure you are telling the truth.
“Why don’t conservatives see or understand this?”
I don’t know, except that I think they like their middle-class welfare entitlement of “free” daycare and they aren’t used to being responsible for their children.
There are, after all, still some “conservatives” who believe that there is a Social Security “trust fund” or “lockbox”. Some others believe that just because they were ripped-off by a prior generation that they are entitled to rip-off a younger generation so that they can get “their” Social Security..
I was very lucky. MY first grade teacher used both Dick and Jane and phoenics.I never had the first problem learning to read.
Bump for later
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