If we took the future of the nation seriously, we would end public schools tomorrow. We would then take our young children, sit them down with the first and simplest of McGuffey’s English textbooks from the 1880s, and teach them to read.
A friend who volunteers at a Sunday school in Harlem for low-income children called me the other day, greatly upset: She had been working with a pair of students who failed to learn the assigned reading, which was a short psalm or a prayer. She thought perhaps the fourth graders, a boy and a girl, weren’t applying themselves. The truth was much worse: The two children turned out to be illiterate.
Their public school teachers had passed them, grade by grade, into the fourth, and no one had ever taught them how to sound out words. Their teachers graded spelling tests and assignments—they knew they were passing kids who couldn’t read.
More @ Independent Institute
Nothing new - The Ex had a high school diploma he could not read. He 'graduated' in 1970. I suspect dyslexia as our daughter had problems until I got her into a developmental optometrist. She started therapy and wearing glasses to correct the vision problems she was having.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to hear that and in what state do you live?
DeleteHe was from Missouri. I'm a Native Kansan, which come-to-think-of-it, might have been part of our differences.
DeleteThat is a travesty! And teachers want more money and shorter work weeks/months. They all should be fired and then only rehired if they can pass a basic literacy and aptitude tests. I agree public schools as an experiment has failed miserably. I was diagnosed with dyslexia as a small child and was taught to compensate for it and I went on and received two Masters in Nursing and Behavioral Science. I still love to read and always have a book in my face.
ReplyDeleteif they can pass a basic literacy and aptitude tests.
DeleteWhich some won't, needless to say.
I was diagnosed with dyslexia as a small child and was taught to compensate for it and I went on and received two Masters in Nursing and Behavioral Science. I still love to read and always have a book in my face.
DeleteForgot, this is great. Are you going to go on the road?