Posted on 02/13/2011 4:44:10 AM PST by IbJensen
I disagree on the problem.
Kids can, and often do, learn very well through sight words as long as site words are used to help teach phonics as well.
The reasons kids can’t read it because the welfare state has turned school into a daycare center. Kids used to learn Science, Math, History, Reading and Writing. 5 subjects in an eight hour day.
Today we have a ‘health class’ of which only 25% is useful (and used to be taught in science. the other 75% it political agenda.
Today we have X-studies of which almost none is useful. Things like this used to be taught in history.
The focus on making kids ‘feel good’ has throttled education.
They threw out the traditional alphabetic-phonics method, in which one learns how to sound out new words, and replaced it with a new sight, whole-word, or look-say method....
^^^
Fortunately, I went to Catholic school and was taught the phonics method.
The dumbing down of our public school system has been a consistant part of the leftist plan from the start. It is just not acceptable to have a country full of literate individuals, able to decide issues for themselves.
I can remember when the DOE was established. I thought, at the time, that this latest Jimmy Carter “brain fart” would only make a situation that was deteriorating flush that much faster. I’m not always happy when I am right. We now have whole generations of school kids who will truly be “ugly Americans”.
Well, I went to catholic schools when I was a kid, and then made sure my own kids stayed in private school. It was worth the cost. Now, my grandchildren attend private school. I spent several years teaching in an urban area public high school and, frankly, I am afraid for all of us.
I believe we need to abolish most, and scale back the rest, of the federal agencies. But the DOE could be gone tomorrow with no ill effects at all. The fed should not be involved in education, even in the most minimal way.
“I’m a 3rd teacher. Johnny can’t read because there is no cohesive family anymore. There is no one at home who will talk to their children anymore. There are no books in the homes anymore. “
Forgive me if I have a problem with people that always BLAME THE PARENTS, but my wife grew up oversees with ILLITERATE PARENTS, but was taught in a public school that had class sizes of 40 students...and she is far from illiterate.
If teachers don’t want to use methods that DO WORK, like Phonics, that’s fine - the NEA will be happy to turn out another illiterate generation of kids.
- BUT QUIT BLAMING PARENTS!!!!!! It’s getting really, really, old these days.
“There are no books in the homes anymore.”
This is a big one. Kids do what the adults around them do. If the adults around them do not value reading (and there are plenty who do not) then they will not either. Thus, no motivation to learn to do so exists.
I grew up in E. TX, where we have Southern accents. In college I had to take a course in the IPA...writing and transforming sentences.
It ate my lunch because I had never heard the King's English spoken. I couldn't write a sentence correctly when I didn't hear or pronounce the words the "correct" pronunciation.
Luckily, I was taught reading using the "Sight" method. "Run, Spot, Run."
The fact is....different kids learn to read using different "methods." Some benefit by fonics, others by site. I really was lucky that "sight" was in when I started school because that taught to my strength. I'm a visual learner. We learned phonics in Spelling in Third grade. I memorized the spelling test and if the teacher called them out of the order I had memorized, I was in trouble.
I wasn't a genius but I wasn't stupid. I think kids with average or above I.Q.'s learn to compensate and poor teachers/incorrect teaching don't hurt them in the long run.
I had the same experience with my son when he was in kindergarten. The teacher insisted he could not read.
When he was older, I was seriously ill and he did attend 5th grade for a few months. The teacher claimed that there was no evidence that he was advanced in math. My immediate question was, “Well...Have you tested him?” Her response was a dumb stare. (He enrolled in college at 13 and by 15 had finished Calculus III.)
Do you really need to use the s-word to make your point?
Best Statement at the futility of the Written English Alphabet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWN9rTc08GU&feature=related
“Granted you have to have phonics but we need a real alphabet for English”
This is why Korean is the best written language on the planet. Around 500 years ago they dumped Chinese Characters and created a new alphabet specifically for their language.
It’s ridiculously easy to become literate in Korean. About the same number of symbols as the English Alphabet and they *always* make the same sound.
I, too, attended Catholic schools pretty much all my school years, although my parents (who never went beyond high school) taught me to read by the age of four. We learned much the same way you did, plus phonics (this was back in the 70s and 80s). I always tested at least 3-4 grades ahead in reading level and my mom had to pretty much drag me out of the library as a kid.
My kids attend Catholic schools now, and wouldn’t you know it, they are learning to read the same way I did (and the school librarian is a nun, lol). All of my kids who are old enough to read do so above their grade level. Regular trips to the library are a part of our existence. I have several shelves for books surrounding our faux fireplace in the front room which are full and always increasing. I have stacks of library books just for me in both the living room and bedroom.
My oldest has participated in Battle of the Books for three years straight—it is the most popular activity in the school—over 65 kids (grades 4-6 are eligible) in a school of just about 300. They consistently place at the state level every year.
As you can see, reading is very much encouraged in our house and the school. I joked that my husband doesn’t like to read, which isn’t true, but until recently, he never really had the time. I bought him ‘Atlas Shrugged’ for his birthday in November. He just finished it this week and is now trying to figure out what to read next. Now he’s not allowed to tease me about the 700 page biographies and historical novels I bring home from the library ;)
Considering the flood of new books targeting young readers that turn up at the library, those home school kids who check books out by the dozens per week offset the nincompoops. It's a thriving, exploding, market -- and someone somewhere is creating the demand!
It's the education wing of the Cloward-Piven building.
When my children entered school, one first grade teacher bucked the educational bureaucracy and taught phonics to our son. When our daughter entered school we got her into that same teacher's first grade class, but by this time the bureaucrats had forced her to largely give up phonics, though thankfully she did manage to slip it in from time to time. There was a considerable difference in reading skills between our kids as a result.
I fail to understand why this whole language approach to reading which has been so widely discredited persists in our schools.
As a matter of fact, yes I did. I’d be happy to use it again, if you wish.
Are you wearing the “Word Police” badge today, as you conduct your hall monitoring duties?
If so, congratulations. I’m sure the promotion amounts to a milestone in your life.
“I fail to understand why this whole language approach to reading which has been so widely discredited persists in our schools.”
I think you know why, it’s pretty obvious. What annoys me is similar to what annoys you - which is people saying: “different strokes for different folks” meaning that phonics works on some, whole language on others - so a mix is best.
LOL. That might be the case if Whole Language had ANY MERIT, but it doesn’t. It’s like saying teach one bunch of kids their times tables and let the other bunch play cards - and the results will be about the same. LOL.
I too, was early identified as an advanced reader by the educational powers-that-be, and after testing me over that and the other subjects in the first grade curriculum, I was placed into a third grade classroom. This might have been fine from a strictly academic standpoint, but it was a personal disaster from a social standpoint in the world of early-1960's small-town Iowa. Sanity prevailed and I was returned to my peers (such as they - and I - were), with damages limited to those already done.
A year later, the family moved to a more "progressive" district where "theories du jour" were warmly embraced, with one of the results being that I was thrown from one method to another over the years and never did understand some subjects well enough before being uprooted for a different angle of attack. My inclination towards laziness didn't help matters, and to this day I am ashamed at my lack of mathematical prowess.
I still like to read though!
Mr. niteowl77
“The textbook publishing industry has always seemed to be a bit of a scam. After all, how much have English or math actually progressed in the past 100 years which have required complete the textbooks to be rewritten every three years or so?”
Same here, I’ve wondered the same. You can take what you said at least through Calculus. If you ever get a chance, get a look at some hardcover Saxon Math books. They’re only about 10 or 15 years old, but they look like they’re out of a time warp. One author (sometimes two), all black and white, no pictures of Nelson Mendela (as I saw in a public school math book), no calculators (until real late in the sequence). Needless to say, the books are AWESOME and got my kids YEARS AHEAD of their age level.
Unfortunately the hard-cover books are no longer published (or at least the home school editions), so you have to get them second hand...and I suspect even that might start getting tough, because, if I know the NEA, which I do, they’re likely buying up as many as they can get - just to have book burning parties with them. They’re that dangerous (to them).
My older sister taught me to read before I reached kindergarten. She set up a little blackboard and played school.
May I suggest you teach them Hebrew while you can. The ability to read bidirectionally while dissecting words for roots learned as conceptual ideas is extremely powerful. It is an amazing language.
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