Yes, I believe it does................
Posted on 03/19/2010 12:17:20 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
As a teenager, I heard rumors that the Russians put flouride in drinking water, presumably to wreck our minds and make us easier to control. I heard this only a few times; and I never heard of evidence. As I said, rumors.
But as I’ve researched and written about education a great deal, those rumors have come back into my thoughts. And here is what I want to report to you today: the Russians had absolutely no need to put flouride or anything else in the water. Ever since 1932, they had look-say in our public schools!
As subtle poisons go, as devices that will wreck minds and make people easier to control, look-say (also known as sight-words or Dolch words) is primo.
I was trying to figure out a way of explaining all this in a few words, and I came up with the phrase “education as neurotoxin.” It’s hard to invent a new phrase these days; but Google didn’t find it. So I wrote a column with that title (and later put it on other sites as “Bad Education Considered as Neurotoxin”).
I’m sure that mental dysfunction is a helpful way to discuss what is done to children in American public schools. But is this only a literary metaphor or more substantial than that? Well, we do have 50,000,000 functional illiterates and a million dyslexics. That’s a fact. Many of these people sincerely believe they were born “learning disabled” or “cognitively impaired.” Schools inspected them and said, “You are defective.” Many millions lived their whole lives believing this.
Of all the sins committed by the Education Establishment, forcing bogus reading methods into the public schools has to be the worst. And the first thing that needs to be fixed.
Here’s the summary with the article: “Much of American education is counter-productive and actually works to stunt and retard students. That's because progressive educators view the school as a factory for producing little cookie-cutter socialists. These educators have ended up favoring some of the worst ideas in the history of education, ideas that are best described as neurotoxic. Montessori knew better. No matter whether kids are gifted or slow, they are best served by Montessori's insight that all children develop most quickly in a challenging, cognitively enriched environment.”
“Education as Neurotoxin” http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/view/129985
Yes, it can. We call them “Democrats.”
“Can Bad Education Inflict Brain Damage?”
Just observe the American liberal.
Yes, I believe it does................
ping
A child labeled "learning disabled" is worth $670 per month in SSI payments. Might that have a little to do with it?
Your conclusions are more than just a little delusional.
“The Dolch Word List is also called Sight Words or The Dolch 220. It includes the most frequently used words in the English language. Sight words make up 50 to 70 percent of any general text. Therefore, teaching The Dolch Word List is a crucial goal of education in grades kindergarten through 3.
Many of the 220 Dolch words cannot be “sounded out” and have to be learned by “sight,” that is memorized. The list is divided into grade levels. It includes pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and verbs. The basic list excludes nouns, which make up a separate 95 word list. “
How does having children memorize words which can not be phonetically sounded out lead to the equivalent of mind control?????
Perhaps you have had too much fluoride in your water....
Another reason to homeschool to be sure, but this seems like an article of general interest to homeschoolers.
Talk to a liberal and see for yourself. Ignorance is bliss, especially for RAT voters and MSNBC hosts.
Many words can be phonetically sounded out but kids are taught to memorize or guess.
Public schools have had their desired effect.
Maybe sight words make up to seventy percent of writing because they want it that way. They can’t sound out words anyway.
But that isn’t the point of the Dolch words. My daughter (who is now 22) was taught in public schools using phonics methods. And when the words that could not be sounded out showed up they had to memorize them. this is not a big deal. My guess even when you were in school that is how you learned as well
My point was simply that the leap from using a list of words that don’t fit phonics rules and memorizing them is NOT a bridge to communism. The guy’s logic is not only flawed it is irrational.
It is general text in the written material encountered by younger readers.
I do not want to argue teaching methods for reading since that isn’t really the point. My point was that this writer’s leap to an indefensible conclusion was so far over the top that it was irritating. Being irrational does no one any good
I learned to read with a set of Orton phonogram flashcards. I didn’t need to memorize the word ‘eat’ (as an example) as a sight word because I knew that ea=ee. Ate and came and ride all follow the same rule: vowel_e, the vowel is long. There are some exceptions but they should be taught on a case by case basis.
Most of the words on the lists can be sounded out phonetically. There are few exceptions. Why not teach the children the sounds that the letters and letter combinations make (about 70 letters/combos) and have them apply that to the majority of words and then teach them the few exceptions. Of all the people I know that were taught with sight words, all hate reading and struggle with it immensely. They admit that they mostly guess at words.
This may interest you. http://www.swrtraining.com/id27.html
Here is a sight words list for Pre K: All these can be sounded out phonetically except “said”.
•a
•at
•an
•and
•am
•are
•can
•do
•for
•go
•have
•he
•here
•in
•I
•is
•it
•like
•look
•me
•my
•my
•no
•play
•said
•see
•she
•so
•the
•to
•up
•we
Most schools aren’t using phonics. They “teach” children to read using sight words only. If a child can’t memorize a word then he has to guess.
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