I disagree with the author. Poor reading skills only account for a small part of it. The main reason kids are underachievers is because of low expectations by the parents.
I homeschooled my kids in phonics, math and history.
As infants they were sung the ABC song 30 times/day.
Kid’s learning is the parent’s responsibility.
Why be motivated when whether you try or not you get a participation trophy and you can vote for candidates that will funnel the money of the motivated to you?
I don’t agree with the author either.......
Look at Ben Carsons story....his mother is truly the hero in his life.
I agree with him and it is from personal experience as a student as a parent. Unlike many I did not wait for school to get my daughter started, she was typically babysat by my mother in law who made sure she watched sesame street and other similar programs that were good starters. I worked with her personally on flash cards and other things and did not do the 2+2+4 where she had to respond and move ahead. As long as she was paying attention it was getting in and came out later. She took piano lessons at 4 and when she was in daycare in Kindergarten she could read quite proficiently. The keys here were phonics, vowels and other foundations.
I agree also that the curriculum is deliberately slowed down and students not being able to even read I blame on whole language, memorizing words and not sounding them out or understanding root words. I got no help from my parents and as others have stated when I was in 2nd grade and learned all the foundations I found the Colliers encyclopedia and I was on my way. In 3rd grade after testing my parents were told I needed to be promoted 1 grade and 2 the following year. They refused and I was bored for the next 3 years.
So what was the difference?
Foundations, alphabet, vowels, phonics, syllables, punctuation. Then reading came easy and the only thing that changed was the subject matter and reading speed. The pace in grade schools as well as the methods are awful and “new” methods are left in place to the point that students graduate HS not able to read and write.
Parents now a days were brought up on new math etc, and I will agree that involvement in your child’s education and progress is important but when the Edutocracy fails to even provide decent remedial instruction it is well past time for a change
Personally I have taught classes highly technical in content over multiple computer systems, Operating system version and field service of them on multiple continents and the class never lasted more than 2 weeks per iteration.
We do not challenge our children nearly enough and with the right foundations, they can excel as students in other countries prove every day. And to the parents who just want little Johnny to be happy and take his cell phone to school in grade school you reap what you sow.
My thinking. If she relied on only the public school to teach her children they have been denied proper training. Schools don’t teach responsibility, discipline, goal setting, accountability, etc, etc.
My grandson recently finished Air Force basic training and one of the first things he wrote home was these guys don’t even know basic problem solving or conflict resolution. He put it upon himself to teach them.