As a public school teacher, I can affirm that many of my pre-k through 8th-grade colleagues utilize rhyme, rhythm, chants, song, poetry, and reading to students in our teaching. At the school where I teach, the 7th/8th-grade English teachers devote an entire unit to poetry, during which time students are “asked” - due to we cannot force them nor do some parents require/assist them - to memorize one poem for recitation to the class. In our 7th-grade Social Studies classes, the teachers “ask” students to memorize and recite the Preamble to our U.S. Constitution.
Although I teach 7th-grade Math, I frequently read stories to my students. Some of the stories relate to Math, e.g. “How Much Is a Million?”. A few years ago I realized that many of my students had never heard the phrase, “I think I can. I think I can.” As I had given our well-used copy to our grandson, I purchased another copy. I sat in the glider in the corner of my classroom, with a student on each side and the others on the rug or blanket or throw pillows gathered around me on the floor, and I read aloud to them “The Little Engine that Could.”
It never ceases to amaze me how so many people - adults and children - do not understand/appreciate the gift of learning/reading/story-telling. In the classroom, this is a daily struggle that occurs not only in my room, my school, or even my school system. This phenomenon correlates directly with (or is it “to”?) socio-economic status, as suggested by numerous studies I have read over the years and IMHO.
Thank you for your boots on the ground report. Interesting that students can only be “asked” to memorize, now. I agree about reading out loud, and stories. Children that are read out loud to want to learn to read and are thus enthusiastic. I taught a number of children to read over the years home schooling, and devised my own lessons after reading a book by Leonard Bloomfield, I think it was called “Let’s Read”.
Interesting about the socio-economic connection, which I have read about. I would assume that no father in the home may also be a factor.
I’ve often thought that the dumbing down of the educational system is to produce minds that can be easily manipulated into their “new” truths. I took my first masters in education 1-8. Deeply not impressed. The teacher of math teachers taught rigid rote to her student teachers. That was either because of her opinion of their ability to ingest the material, or to her lack of understanding of it. So sorry to hear about the “asking.” Never heard of that before. So sad. I found many of the lessons on amusing the students while you teach worked out wonderfully with adults, so it wasn’t a waste of a year.
lyby, I love to hear of you reading to your students. I taught in a college techical school for 4 years. Even at that level there were a handful of occasions when I read a story to the students as they worked on lab projects. I made it a practice when I was told, in conversation, with 2 students that a parent had never read to them.
One of my favorite parts of grandchild visits is reading to them. Even though most are fully old enough to read themselves, and most do, I adore all piling onto the bed at night and reading a well loved book.
Learning/reading/story telling/ are the mustard seed of knowledge. The seed may sit dormant for years, but when it is sowed, only time will tell what it will produce. Your work is Nobel!