Posted on 07/25/2006 8:10:42 AM PDT by Lovingthis
We've always assumed him to be dyslexic, because he twists the words around so much...9K Unti for K9 Unit for example.
But it seemed miraculous how well he did after learning the Jr. Phonics Game with our son...I mean, it was really something! After just playing that little silly kids game, he had much less trouble!
And it was the Look and Say method that was mostly used when we were in grade school in the early 60s...you're right. My mother was a teacher and thought it was crap and she taught me phonics at home. I actually remember her being disdainful of it and sitting with me on the couch teaching me to read.
As the former father of a former son, I can vouch for the accuracy of this article.
Your experience sheds light on the problem way better than the example used by the author. The problem seems to be a certain type of indoctrination that has been infiltrating our schools for decades. But I don't think it thwarts only boys. I think it affects all children who are basically told not to think for themselves. They are presented with a monolithic set of values and admonished if they disagree on any count. Your example of the comments made by the teacher about the military are a perfect example!! She is making a direct value judgement (and negative, too) about our proud, brave, and self-sacrificing young men and women fighting to preserve her freedom to say what she wants.
I am very concerned with this type of attitude on the part of educators from K-16 (or 18)!! But, I really do think it affects all students. I do believe that boys and girls should be encouraged to do Physical Education and recess,and that boys are probably more handicapped by the lack of this than girls when it comes to the younger ones. It makes perfect sense that they need this outlet and I, like you, would prefer that teachers make rules and enforce them without stamping their own value judgements all over them.
When asked "why", they must say something, but the last thing they should be doing is dissing our military. They could point to events such as Columbine and relate that it's hard to tell play from reality sometimes, sort of like the jokes about bombs at the airport. I don't know, just brainstorming what I would try to say if I were put in the position of enforcing something like this.
Wow. Well our 17 year old managed to take the ASVAB for the ARMY. We don't have his scores yet, but hopefully he's done well enough to get in after graduation. He's really excited about joining up - I hope he can learn some skills while enlisted so that he'll have a better shot at finding a good job when he gets out. College is not an option with this one.... now the other two - one wants to go to the NAVY and the other the Air Force. I guess we'll just be a family of service members.
I think you're oversimplifying things. The "look and say" method has its advantages. It works for some people, and it doesn't work for others. For those it does work, it results in faster reading. In contrast, people who learn with phonics, develop a habit of sounding out words in their mind, which slows them down and is very difficult to break. I learned to read using phonics, and I had extreme difficulty when taking a speed reading class. My teacher said the vast majority who learned to read with phonics had the same problem, and few of us are ever able to catch up to "whole word" students in terms of reading speed.
I partcularly cursed the fact I was taught with phonics when I was in college; I went to a school with a "great books" program, where we had to read about a book a week. And not just any books; seriously heavy reading, like Plato's Republic and Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov. Some of my collegues who were taugh the "whole language" method finished their reading in about half the time, and had the same level of comprehension. And this was after I had taken a speed reading class!
Another problem with the phonics method is that English isn't a particularly phonetic language. The number of words whose spelling doesn't match the sound is staggering, which then makes spelling more difficult for children learn to read phonetically. In contrast, students who learn via the "look and say/whole word" method tend to memorize peculiar spellings much more quickly and easily.
The problem is that the "whole word" method doesn't work for everyone, but at one time schools implemented it as a as a one-size-fits-all method. Schools and parents should use whichever method works best for their kids.
One that every other kid born in the late '80s is named. There are millions of "Brandons" in the 15-25 year age group. And right behind them are a slew of "Justins" and "Jasons".
Actually - all combat arms have no women in them. The standards of the 82nd Airborne, 101st Air Assault, 10th Mountain and Ranger Battalion are still pretty high...
The liberal social engineering in modern secular statist education ruins everybody - the culture, the values, the families, the children.
The method that works for some and makes others illiterate is insanely stupid!
For those it does work, it results in faster reading.
Yes, and so is with the Chinese ideograms. This is the main limit for the cultural advancement in China. Few people can read more than a thousand of words and to master thousands you need to become a scholar. Anyway the ideograms are better suited for "look-and-say / whole-word" method as they derive from actual pictures. Making ideograms from combinations of letters is inferior.
Some people have better image memory and can read faster but those who could not are often more talented and do not deserve to be crippled.
In contrast, people who learn with phonics, develop a habit of sounding out words in their mind, which slows them down and is very difficult to break.
Well this is the difference between the true alphabet and ideograms. Once you associate letters or group of letters your can read almost EVERY word, even hundreds of thousands of words!
Same way is with musical notation - people who learned to associate notes with sounds can sing EVERY melody, not the few which they memorized by whole look.
Another problem with the phonics method is that English isn't a particularly phonetic language. The number of words whose spelling doesn't match the sound is staggering, which then makes spelling more difficult for children learn to read phonetically.
True, English is difficult in that aspect but there rules which are less numerous and easier that even basic few hundred Chinese characters. Once you master these rules your reading skill is unlimited. And even if you do not master all rules you still will manage well.
You can notice that foreigners do not have much problems with learning to read in English. Why, it is because they were not damaged or made "dyslexic" by the "look-and-say / whole-word" method. They know that letters stand for sounds from the start.
Some of my collegues who were taugh the "whole language" method finished their reading in about half the time, and had the same level of comprehension. And this was after I had taken a speed reading class!
Well, you can learn speed without regressing to the ancient ideograms. Same is with reading musical notation.
I remember an article written by a teacher. They were recounting a potential problem child they had in their class. The child, a boy, would come up and constantly "bump" up against them. This teach finally had enough and was going to send the boy down the hall then next time. Before that happened someone told them the "bump" meant the boy wanted their attention.
After reading this I realized my two boys did the same thing. they would make small physical contact when they wanted me to focus more on them. I started responding appropiately and things were much happier.
Don't know if girls do this.
I know exactly what you mean. I'm a few years younger than your husband, and had trouble from first grade through junior high school.
In first grade I got in trouble, because I couldn't take a nap in the middle of the day. In junior high school, I got in trouble, because they'd teach a little something, then spend the rest of the class period going over and over the same material. I was bored to death, and found ways to entertain myself.
Of course all my teachers said I was a mediocre student. I got a break in high school. There was an honors program, and somebody got the idea of trying me in it. Once the material got a little more challenging, school became easy, rather than deadly boring.
Later, I got the highest SAT scores ever (to that date) in my high school, and was the first from my high school to go to CalTech. If I had been 20 years younger, they would have just drugged me up, and created another routiner.
I have been convinced for years, that many kids are on ritalin, just because they are too smart. It's easier for the teachers to dumb them down, by pushing drugs, than to deal with the fact that smart kids get bored when they are expected to keep pace with other kids.
You're absolutely right. That's an excellent example of the feminization of our entire culture. They never could have pulled that kind of crap 50 years ago, because there would have been enough MEN, on each airplane, to take out the SOBs, before they could take over.
Best article that I have read all day.
I'm sure that you are absolutely correct. I'm also sure that teachers would vehemently deny it. They might even believe that they're doing the right thing.
...If smart kids are drugged, then it's easier on the teacher, and if they're not, then it's harder. And their pay remains the same either way. What do you think that they'd choose?
Actually, it works for the large majority. If it doesn't work for a kid, he can go learn phonics. What's wrong with tayloring the method to the individual?
For those it does work, it results in faster reading. Yes, and so is with the Chinese ideograms. This is the main limit for the cultural advancement in China. Few people can read more than a thousand of words and to master thousands you need to become a scholar. Anyway the ideograms are better suited for "look-and-say / whole-word" method as they derive from actual pictures.
The whole word learning system isn't an ideogram system. It's a kind of a hybrid between that and a phonetic system. It's about recognizing groups of letters that combine into words, rather than literally whole words, except for very simple ones.
Some people have better image memory and can read faster but those who could not are often more talented and do not deserve to be crippled.
The vast majority can learn to read this way, and in the long run it results in faster reading.
Well this is the difference between the true alphabet and ideograms. Once you associate letters or group of letters your can read almost EVERY word, even hundreds of thousands of words!
Yes, but the key is to work in groups of letters & simple root words & endings, rather than sounding out letters. The latter approach, while perhaps making it easier to learn to read quickly, in the long run creates other problems with spelling and reading speed.
This whole educational system will be our nation's undoing. I have one daughter, two sons .. all now, blessedly, well past school age. Girl did just fine. Boys got every label known to God, man, and school administrators!
After 9th grade WE got smart and home schooled the first of our sons, and two years later the second, but that's not an option available to everyone. The principal called after we pulled our first son out of her school and said he'd be welcomed back if I wanted. I laughed .. not in THIS lifetime! This is the principal who suspended that son for leaving school grounds after rescuing another kid from a group assault and fled with him across the street from the school to where they could feel safe. Upon said suspension, she told me how bad leaving school grounds was and how much safer those boys would have been staying on school grounds where there are so many adults (teachers)around. When I asked where those adults (teachers) were during the group assault she had no answer. Yeah, sure, I was about to return my son to THAT.
Many of the really smart boys we knew dropped out of school and got GED's or otherwise took alternative diplomas. But in the meanwhile, they were turned off to education and chose careers that don't require college degrees. My hope is someday they will return to get a real education with some male professors.
The truth is, with the exception of gifted classes, the schools don't really teach that much either to girls or boys. It's 90% fluff. In 10th grade their summer reading assignment report required making a "book ball" showing various aspects of the books they'd read. That's high school!
We as a nation are going to be paying for this educational failure for a long time to come.
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