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.
--
Bruce Deitrick Price explains theories and methods on his education site Improve-Education.org.
"Ceterum censeo Islam esse delendam."
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Rue is a plant, not the creole word roux.
Another class at the same time gave us the alphabet, and what sounds the letters make. And the sounds were easier and the rules simpler than English.
After we knew the alphabet, the teacher in the reciting class said “Okay - now you know what the words sound like, and you know your alphabet. Write out the script!” We all complained, thought it was nuts, etc. Sometimes not even knowing where a break in a word might be or the end of a sentence.
And they wouldn't correct it for us - only underline stuff in red where it was wrong, and we had to try again. And keep trying. And every few days we would have a new script memorized, and have to write that while we were re-writing the previous ones.
At the end of the six weeks I was in a store in Norway, ordering stuff in Norwegian. After a few minutes of talking and buying stuff, the gal asked me a question about what brand of chocolate bar I wanted (all I knew was “chocolate bar”, and I replied in Norwegian “Can you speak english? I don't understand?”
Of course her English was great and she said “You're Norwegian and you want me to speak english?” I laughed and said “No - I'm an American that can speak a little Norwegian!” (Growing up in Minnesota helped a lot with the accent!) Of course I can't remember much of the language now.
Sight and say, whole language is VERY difficult to reverse.
See you tube presentation by Sam Blumenfeld for the history of whole language.
Darn auto fill or fingers too fat for phone keyboard....
Should have said DYE
Isn't this a little brash and simplistic? We all know the story of how Lincoln learned to read and scribbled words with charcoal on the back of a wooden shovel. Did Chaucer or Shakespeare learn phonics? Did Gutenberg print the first phonics primer?
Phonics seems like is a fool's parade if you can look at ghoti and see the word fish. How do you phonetically pronounce ghost?
I personally did not fully grasp English comprehension until I was taught Latin and Greek word formations (root words, prefixes and suffixes) and the difference between Teutonic and Latinate contributions to our language.
The difference between "And God said, Let there be light, and there was light" or "Consequently, Diety announced , Allow illumination — ensued illumination" opened a whole new world of understanding.
Up to that point, Dick and Jane allowed me to devour Jules Verne, Tom Swift, H. G. Wells, Boy's Life and Readers Digest.
Gotit tnks!
LOL I was taught short—talk in the military, along with Q and Z signals. INT QRK?
I agree it’s all connected.
Perhaps a funny comeback will occur to me later. Right now I have to go to the loux.
“Should have said DYE.”
Okay. Now that makes sense.
Never mind, said Emily Litella.
I completely agree with this. Many students attempt to memorize their way through high school science rather than strive for understanding. They struggle to apply principles to new applications and problem solving. It's entirely possible that this is related to the way they learned to read. Many take notes by copying word for word, and unless they are given a list of things to 'learn' for a test, they don't know what to do. Successful decoding of words is a basic skill that should help students build confidence as they learn to 'decipher' other information and develop their understanding of the world around them. It's possible that by missing out on this early problem solving experience they are handicapped later.
The ghoti example is famous enough to have its own Wikipedia page. It's been traced back to 1855. I learned it from my fourth grade teacher a hell of a long time ago.
It is claimed that kudzu can be used to make roux.
LOL, he’s too young for that. His mom gave me an electric one last year, it’s pretty cool.
Nicely played
I can’t speak for anywhere else, but here in MI it’s Autumn Olive.
Promo ed for landscaping to “feed the birds” it was pushed by both state and local govts.
They even handed out packets of seed with hunting licenses and asked hunters to scatter the seeds where they hunted.
Well, birdies do what birdies “doo”. Now they’re EVERYWHERE! From roadsides to fields, to yards and edges of wetlands! And for some of us we’re so allergic to its pollen that we have to retreat to the AC for about 2 weeks every spring.
In my career as botanist, early on I did some work for USDA Conservation Services and “graduated” to working for USDA Forest Service.
I found that the Forest had declared the Olive a noxious weed and were trying to eliminate, it while the Conservation Services division was still propagating, promulgating and peddling the stuff!
I went down ask asked WHY they were still selling these noxious weeds and was told, “But we still have all these pounds of SEEDS”!
That’s govt for ya.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.