I used to read this and other Dr Seuss books to my son almost every night. He is now a senior in high school, an honors student and the president of the German language club.
Posted on 12/07/2016 1:18:21 PM PST by BruceDeitrickPrice
[A few words about America’s two biggest parasites--]
if you’ve driven on southern interstates, you know kudzu. It’s that leafy vine that can cover the tallest trees. Finally, motorists see nothing but kudzu, which has earned the nickname, “The vine that ate the South.”
Kudzu envelops everything and eventually destroys everything.
In short, kudzu is exactly like Sight-Words.
Kudzu, indigenous to Japan, was touted as an ornamental shade plant at US expositions in 1876 and 1883. During the 20th century, government agencies promoted kudzu as cattle feed.
The Department of Agriculture also recommended “kudzu to help control erosion of slopes which led to the….government-funded plantings of kudzu…By 1946, it was estimated that 3,000,000 acres of kudzu had been planted.”
During this same period our government was also forcing Sight-Words into the public schools, an interesting parallel.
Kudzu was the classic invasive species, initially welcomed as an exotic import, and finally hated as a weed. It’s difficult and expensive to eliminate.
Similarly, Sight-Words were welcomed by the self-appointed experts in our Education Establishment, effectively a branch of our government. So now we have a kudzu epidemic and a Sight-Word epidemic. Which is more destructive? Sight-Words, because millions of children are damaged at the beginning of their lives.
Under the right conditions, kudzu is not a problem. In Japan, for example, winters kill off the above-ground growth so the parasitic aspects remain marginal.
Sight-Words, however, are the parasite that goes on a rampage and hangs around until you surrender.
Sight-Words, like kudzu, could only be promoted by a government bureaucracy with limited vision. However, experts in the Department of Agriculture were presumably sincere in singing the praises of kudzu. On the other hand, experts in the Education Establishment knew from the beginning that Sight-Words would not be an effective way to teach reading. Furthermore, according to famous research by Dr. Samuel Orton circa 1927, Sight-Words would cripple a child cognitively. It’s a shocking perversity that phony experts pushed Sight-Words and still do. Why? Typically, these experts are left-wing ideologues who want leveling in order to bring about socialist goals.
Not familiar with Sight-Words? Let me mention that the phrase refers to any words you memorize as a graphic design. You can’t spell it or sound it out. You learn it as a shape, just as the Chinese memorize their ideograms or you might memorize §. It’s a slow and difficult way to learn English words. Our experts clearly prefer SLOW.
For a background article, please see “Sight-Words—The Big Stupid.”
CODA: Here is a simple way to appreciate the folly of Sight-Words. Consider the tiny goals for a child’s first year. A typical kindergarten list aims for only three words per week. At the end of 16 weeks, children—even if successful— will know only 48 words. They are still illiterate and will be for years to come. Had they learned phonics, they would be able to read age-appropriate books by the end of 16 weeks….Also note that the three words for Week 16 are he, she, we. Note that these words look alike and sound alike. They are perfectly phonetic. But the official excuse for using Sight-Words is that some English words don’t obey any rules! Obviously, our experts think American parents can be lied to with reckless abandon.
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Bruce Deitrick Price explains theories and methods on his education site Improve-Education.org.
Just realized something while reading your comments: foreign languages in US schools are taught phonetically. At least it was when I took Spanish. So if we knock that’s the best way to teach kids to read fluently in a second language, why isn’t it seen as the best way in their native language?
I was on jury and I was the only one who could read some chemical names on the indictment and they all thought I must be a scientist. I just sounded them out.
In my case, even the word pronunciation were memorized without breaking the word out in syllable sounds(phonics). We were also taught rote memorization of word definitions (vocabulary). My 37 year old daughter started out rote then got switched to phonics. She can read any text phonetically, but has little or no comprehension of what she has read. I get stuck on pronouncing unfamiliar words but I also am well drilled on using the old Webster’s which aids my understanding. I appreciate your info!
I’ve never taught any of my kids to read using sight words. Phonics is the best way, by far.
No, the fact is that Kudsu does not take over the forest. Just to the edge of the forest. Kudzu grows in open fields. Kudzu grows in just 2% of the south. Southerners like to tell stories. They like to exaggerate. Kudzu is good for cattle feed and to give to alcoholics to stave off the desire for more booze. Kudzu can be turned into floor for baking. The Kudzu root can grow to be as big as a human leg. It might be better to plant peppermint. Just 2% of the south is Kudzu. Southerners like to tell tall stories.
You mean like octanitrocubane? Hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane? Or cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine? Chemistry is a blast!
I see waht yuo did theer.
I homeschooled mine with the Explode the Code series. Great for teaching reading.
Oriental languages have many differences but the ideogram or character is basically the same as a sight-word.
Both are useless parasites. It’s just a way of dramatizing that sight-words are a hindrance.
(I write a lot of articles about sight-words because our public schools keep teaching them. I’m always looking for another way to explain the problem.)
I used to read this and other Dr Seuss books to my son almost every night. He is now a senior in high school, an honors student and the president of the German language club.
I’ve heard my own story about a private school using sight-words. I think that 20 years ago, it never happened. Somehow the sales people have figured out what buttons to push.
This mother explained to me that her third grader needed tutoring and then she repeated the sales pitch that the whole-word people use: “Of course they learn phonics. But some words don’t conform to the rules ETC.” It really is pathetic. And you’re telling a situation where not one student learned to read after nine months. But the people in charge don’t relent? That really is sick.
All the phonics people tend to use the same figure for how long it takes to learn to read: about four months.
I wish you were right. Every school can change at any time, and change back 10 years later.
In general, I think sight-words are as pervasive in elementary schools as in 1940 or 1960 or 1980.
My brother nicknamed his wife “Kudzu.”
I asked him why. He said when he first met her “she seemed a tad aggressive, but after awhile she growed on me.”
What is a due? Is that a typo? Did you mean rue?
“Did you mean rue?”
Or perhaps roux?
Fun with fonix!
Hey! That's my idea!
After going to Japan on business back in the nineties ( I saw Comet Hyakutake from the plane on the polar route, ) I studied Japanese at the community college for a while. I worked at it assiduously, but I can’t say I learned much Japanese. I did learn a lot ABOUT Japanese, though. And of course, a lot of “appreciation”.
They speak of “climbing the Kanji mountain” in the self-help books ( Kanji are the characters. ) Like I say, I hardly learned them, but I could appreciate that our paltry 26 letters must seem like binary code, or something, if you’re used to them.
That's cracked. I learned to read by seeing Dick and Jane run and I, to this moment, could never look at ghoti and read fish. LOL
Phonics requires the child, first, to memorize a few rules, secondly, to learn that there are exceptions to some of those rules, and thirdly, to apply reason and connect the pieces into a coherent whole.
If children are not being taught this very basic discipline which is so necessary in reading, which in turn is necessary to explore the whole world and to consider everything in it from differing perspectives, then why are we surprised when our high schools and colleges are filled with ignorant little robots who cannot think, cannot consider differing perspectives, and refuse even to try?
Sometimes I suspect the real reason the SJWs are so busy attending meetings and walking out of class to attend protests is in order to cover up their collective illiteracy.
God forbid they be required to study and be tested on what they’ve learned. Or worse, to have to read up on a given subject, and prepare an articulate defense for their puerile viewpoints in a debate.
There will be no debate; it’s easier, and moreover, absolutely necessary, to shout down the opposition.
The brats can’t read! That fact presents its own compelling reason to hide that fact!
Whatever. Rant off. Sorry! :-)
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