Thanks for posting.
Bttt
I agree that whole word sucks donkey dong, but I do have a serious question. How do chinese kids learn to read chinese?
Funny how they want kids to remember words, but not multiplication tables because to do that would be cheating.???
The pen is mightier than the sword.
So Big Ed has devised a way to neutralize the pen.
But Papa, I can't read!
But you do read, child, you read to me every day.
"But I can't!"
Why do you say that? Because there are words you don't know?
Uh-huh.
Child, you run across new words all the time. I even run across new words and I have been reading for a long long time.
"You do?"
Yes, but we have the tools to sound them out, and once we understand what they mean they are ours.
Near as I can recall, every single kid learned to read at a functional level.
Source?
SEE SPOT RUN. SEE THE DOG RUN.
OH OH OH SEE JANE RUN. SEE DICK RUN.
SEE DICK FALL DOWN. SEE JANE LAUGH.
Where I live, the schools teach phonetics.
Public education can’t teach johnny to read, but at least it costs a fortune.
Basically they took away the tools that enable one to be learned. The sounds, the math tables etc. When my kids were in school, they didn’t want them to memorize their multiplication tables because that would be rote instead of learning. It would be like cheating. Instead they wanted the kids to make equations and figure out how 3x3 became 9??? So they had to do something like 3x3=3+3+3=2+1+2+1+2+1 etc. I kept telling my kids memorizing the multiplication tables was learning how to use a tool that would make math easier for them. Fortunately, learning to read was a combination of methods at their school with me doing a lot of reading with them so I could teach them phonetics more strongly then the school was doing. I learned phonetics in first grade and I remember when it clicked in my brain that letters represented sounds. The first word that made sense was Tag, the name of the dog in the McMillan series. See Tag run. Run Tag run. Wow! God bless the teacher who taught me that. It opened a whole new world for me.
Nothing is more important than for a child to come from a family that reads.
Only using sight words makes no sense. As soon as you come across an unknown and ‘teacher’ isn’t there to help, how do you figure it out? Phonetics gives you the tool to sounding out new words.
Too bad, so sad, evil dumbing-down people!
We taught our kids phonetics before they started school. They are both excellent readers today. There is nothing in education (including math) that can be mastered if you do not read well.
I recently applied to tutor kids for the ACT / SAT (at one of the big name tutoring companies) - it seems like a good way to make a few extra bucks. Anyway, I had to take the ACT math and science exams (and get an acceptable score on them) to qualify to tutor. I have been out of school durn near 40 years and was able to pass - not because of subject knowledge (much of which is long gone) but because I am capable of reading and comprehending quickly and accurately. You will not score well on these exams if you cannot read well - and since college admissions and scholarship levels rely on how well you score (unless you are non-white or excel at sports), poor reading skills severely cramp your college prospects.
Here’s the proof the “experts” know that phonics works. Most school districts receive considerable money from Uncle Sam for remedial reading programs. Kids who have difficulty with reading end up in those classes, where they are taught PHONICS.
Follow the money.
Bttt.
don’t people like the Chinese and Japanese learn by sight..they certainly can’t use phonics.
Back in the early 90’s I had to take my child out of public school because at the age of 12 and after years of intensive effort by reading specialists he couldn’t even read a kindergarten book. They told me I would just have to accept my child would never really read.
After major arguments with district social workers and such I pulled out a library phonics book by Nancy Stevenson for dyslexic children and had taught him to read in a matter of a few weeks. They still chased me down and actually came to my house and tried to stop me from using phonics!
It was at that point I realize how clueless professional educators can be. It’s not that they didn’t care; they did. But they just “knew the best way to do it” and that was that.