[cinives]

Just more evidence of the truism that it takes less than 100 hours to teach someone to read. What's required ? Phonics and motivation to learn.

[shezza]

I taught all of my kids to read with an annual budget of $0.00. My eldest was reading on a 12th grade level when he was 7. Maybe Mom could help instead of whining.

[wizardoz]

Now I'm a big proponent of private schools, choice, homeschooling... hey, if they abolished the public school system altogether that would be fine with me. But there are two initial problems here, above and beyond our schools:

1) That boy is full of BS. They tried to teach him every day of his life and I know his type. It's someone else's fault he can't read. Oh yeah? You think you go to school and just sit there while someone else pries open your brain and shovels knowledge into it?

2) And Mom.... parents, that child is YOUR responsibility before he is society's and the tax-payers. I don't care if you're single, working two jobs, and poor as a church mouse, you can spend a half hour three times a week helping your kid to read.

Man, this BS just makes me furious.

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

I am a little confused with this statement:

"With public schools spending more than $100,000 per student on K-12 education"

This statement does not make sense.

Bush's original NCLB was the way to go, but it was diluted with statist (Kennedist) solutions.

[silverleaf]

His mom, Gena Cain, has been trying to get him help for years

To believe that, I'd want to see a long series of letters from Gena to the School District requesting that her son be tested and evaluated for special education services. Somehow I doubt that she has ever formally requested anything but is willing to whine a lot now about being a victim.

[wintertime]

My homeschool kids were reading at the ages of 5,4, and 3. When I started teaching the oldest the two younger **demanded** that I teach them too! I was so cute to see a little 3 year old read.

I used the phonics program used by our local Montessori school. We called them the "Mac and Tab" books.

To the Parents Still Sending Their Kids to Government Schools:

So...What was that reason again for sending your kids to the government education factories?

The only possible acceptable reason, is like the woman in the article, you are too poor to afford anything else, and that if you didn't, government would send armed police, and social workers to **force** attendance.

[Codeograph]

"South Carolina is one of many states to have trouble with this. It spends $9,000 per student per year, and its state school superintendent told me South Carolina has been "ranked as having some of the highest standards of learning in the entire country.""

I am from South Carolina and our State School Superintendent is a total failure. Under her "leadership" , South Carolina schools have been living up to this motto - " First where we should be last, and last where we should be first "

[The Great RJ]

Did Dorian's Mom ever read to him as a child? Were there books in Dorian's home or just a TV and video game machine? Have Dorian or his Mom ever been regular visitors to the local library?

Yes, our schools often do a poor job of teaching reading and should be held accountable, but motivating children to read starts at home.

[Racehorse]

Why do some schools succeed while others fail or produce inferior students?

It really is a whole package deal:  parents, teachers, discipline, environment, money and resources.

What are secrets to success of local military school districts?

Base-school parents and teachers explain why students do well

The trick and the challenge is to apply the successful military school model to districts, students and parents such as those in this South Carolina school.

[conservonator]

If the results of home schooling were the same as the results as public schooling, home schooling would be banned.

[VOA]

bump

[Old Professer]

Bring back the I.Q. tests.

[WasDougsLamb]

--I taught my children to read and there are certain things a PARENT needs to take responsibility in. Once a kid is sent to school, he HAS to apply himself and want to learn. This type of kid, as IMHO, didn't apply himself and screwed around in school all his life and it finally caught up with him. If he wasn't even able to read at a first grade level and hadn't asked for help in earlier years, then it is obvious he didn't give a crap whether he could read or not. If his mother is just now noticing, where has she been all these years? Under a rock?

[SC Swamp Fox]

South Carolina Ping

Add me to the list. | Remove me from the list.

[upchuck]

FWIW, the State Superintendent is a RAT named Inez Tenenbaum. She ran against Jim DeMint in the last election and DeMint kicker her butt.

This is a little OT, but check out DeMint in action.

[cowboyway]

He's 18 years old and in 12th grade, but when I asked him to read from a first-grade level book, he struggled with it.

Learning is unimportant as long as they bolstered his self-esteem. If they failed in that area, then we have a problem.

[Law is not justice but process]

Here is another truism for you: You have to work awfully hard in America today to avoid a high school education. Sadly, all too many are willing to work that hard. There is blame to go around to the teachers and bureaucracy of government schools, no doubt, but the primary problem is unmotivated students. I would not send my kids to a public school not because they could not learn there, but because of what they would learn from all the other students.

Here is a third truism for you: I learned a lot more in high school than my teachers ever taught me.

[FreeKeys]

A new addition to this ongoing series of articles is here: School Competition Remains "Unproven" (sarcasm)