Posted on 02/13/2011 4:44:10 AM PST by IbJensen
and you can’t even spell Pete
I used Sam Blumenfelds books to teach my own to read, alphaphonics is great!
Here is a link to Brian Reagan joking about Phonics... funny stuff.
Check out this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtJLAWXO5vY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Teachers Colleges need to all be defunded until they teach Phonics to the educators.
Whole Language Curriculums are evil and those who promote their use should be locked up as enemies of Liberty.
I used Alphaphonics for those of my children who didn’t wake up reading on their own before I thought about teaching them. It is very effective. I used to have two copies, but gave one to another FReeper a while back. I still have one if I need it with Tax-chickadee #9.
Reading is the key to expanding the mind, imho. I think one would find that most FReepers were avid readers.
Harrison Bergeron is becoming real, and we didn’t even have to pass the 211th, 212th and 213th Amendments yet.
“Patrick’s way may lead to a rarefied academic career, while Anoreth is a sailor and Sally is likely to marry pretty young and have lots of children.”
Ooops! You’ve strayed too close to a passion of mine, so be forewarned that I usually get verbose and excitable right about now. :)
Yes, your son might well be headed to a life as an academic — and we need good conservative ones. But a gifted scholar doesn’t have to be in a university.
You can tell by my screenname that I’m a pastor, but I do not believe that being a pastor should have ever been a “profession.” That goes back to the earliest centuries of the Church. We have replaced the need for every believer to learn and to pass on what they know, and have given it to an anointed few who are supposed to do it because that’s their job. We professionalized the “Ministry” and therefore took it out of the hands of the “laypeople.” We are left with two groups of people — “clergy” who know things, and “laypeople” who don’t. And the laypeople don’t know things because the clergy never expected them to retain what they were taught.
We, both the Church and America, need brilliant scholars. We need thinkers. We need teachers who want to pass on knowledge of the Bible, American history and conservative scholarship. But we don’t necessarily need them to be stuck in a university or a pulpit. We need them in every aspect of life.
We need scholars as authors. We need scholars as entrepreneurs. We need scholars in the media. We need scholars in finance and education. We need scholars in the pews and scholars in the pulpits. Passionate, logical, committed with minds on fire.
We also need scholars as sailors and scholars who “marry pretty young and have lots of children.”
I think life is bigger than “I am this” or “I am that.”
That being said, someday when I have kids and they grow up and go off to college, I’ll have to warn them to be careful if they get a Greek professor named Patrick. I’ve heard he’s rather tough. :)
And prone to bizarre psychotic fits if they look at him funny, move his spoon, or say "parabolic" during a full moon. But that's another story ;-).
Excellent rant overall. Pat is a special case, and it will be interesting to see if normal life has a place for him. But Anoreth is a conservative scholar, spreading Thomas Sowell and the Gospel in far-off places like Brunei and Seattle. And there's no mission field like your own family, because they can't get away from you if they want meals.
I agree that "clericalism" is a problem in Christianity. With the universal literacy made possible by modern printing, every Christian should be a Bible scholar. And a historian. And a scientist. If you don't want to pay full price on the courses from "The Teaching Company," get them discounted on eBay. Anyone can learn Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: the curriculum is there for children as young as 4, and Pat's the proof.
One thing we find on Free Republic is passionate conservative scholars. I got beat up a bit in my first couple of years, because I thought I knew a lot. Whoops! Just because your family says "Uh-huh" all the time doesn't mean you're making sense. I love it when I find a whole new way of approaching a problem, or a great author I'd never heard of.
Just one request: Lady up!
You got that right. The nuns made you learn. No excuses. They should employ those methods today. I sympathize with your situation, but the people who write those alarmist books make it seem like the great majority of kids coming out of school can't read. I've always wondered if it was because they can't read or they won't read. As you have indicated, the education for many poor kids leaves a lot to be desired.
What a bunch of nonsense. Reading is a process of generating hypotheses? Then what are the null hypotheses, without which hypotheses are meaningless? I think we have here the real reason Johnny can't read: he's being taught by scholars that have no clue how to put a coherent, meaningful sentence together.
Speak for yourself. Misspelled words leap out of the page at me and attack my eyes with little boxing gloves. I don't even have to read something or know what it's about to see the misspellings.
No; forgive me, but according to Blumenfeld, (I have his lectures on tape discussing this in depth) “Dyslexia” is actually caused by teaching the Whole Language scheme; there are NO records anywhere that Dyslexia was even in existance before this scheme was introduced on a mass scale in America, in the mid ‘30’s..
Look at the history of education in this country..in the early days of this nation, children could not even begin to attend school until they learned to read. Small children were universally home schooled. Most learned to read before age 5. There was no such thing as “Public Education” before the mid 19th Century..
Here are a number of lectures in mp3 format, that Sam Blumenfeld has given on the origins of The Whole Language system, also on The History of Education in America..you will be amazed at all the research he has done. These lectures are in two zipped files..
The first zipped file is here = http://www.mediafire.com/?dwchzznzmkc
The second zipped file is here = http://www.mediafire.com/?0amh40yjxkj
If anyone is at all interested in learning how the Socialists have taken over the Educational establishment in America, and what their goals are.. these lectures are a must listen.
Sam Blumenfeld is a friend to Conservatives, he has done massive, scholarly work in revealing exactly what is the problem with Education in this country.. he was also one of the first advocates of Home Schooling in the early ‘70s..
Blumenfeld has pointed out that people who have been “diagnosed” with so called “Dyslexia” can recover by learning true Phonics. (NOT with a combination of Whole Language and phonics, as this has been often tried, and fails every time.) Sam Blumenfeld has done the research; he has proven time and time again, that by teaching phonics to people of any age, with so called “Dylexia”, that this “Illness” can be reversed in fairly short order, by teaching phonics by the tried and true method.
True Phonics works well, Whole Language is a proven disaster !
I've taken time to complain at some businesses and stores about this sort of innumeracy, but even managers look at me like I'm some sort of talking cow.
Somewhat related phenomenon: two years ago (almost) I went through the line at a McDonald's and noticed that the salad dressing they gave me was Newman's Own. I expressed my pleasure and gratitude for the company's considerateness in providing a good product made by a good company. Young employee stared at me uncomprehendingly. Newman's Own? Blank look. Paul Newman? Blank look. She was nearly twenty and had never heard of Paul Newman.
It's called cultural illiteracy. Under my administration it will be a capital offense. Summon Professor Guillotine.
Didn’t a large number of Republican reps and senators vote for the Dept. of Educ., signed itno law by GA’s Jimmy Carter? Our problem comes from within our own ranks too.
Around here that wouldn’t be noteworthy only because it’s the expected norm.
Shelves stacked 2 rows deep plus on top and in front of each row, on the top of the bookshelf clear to the ceiling, repurposed energy drink display racks (excellent ghetto bookshelves), huge Rubbermaid tubs stuffed to bulging...
I don’t know who voted for it, likely many repubs.
Sounded like a good idea at the time, raise the education of the kids, blah-blah.
If only that were true. Most of today's 'government, union' teachers are a gaggle of losers many of whom can't spell and couldn't find Washington, D.C. on a map or anything else for that matter.
Thanks for sharing.
That's why the God-less power brokers of Mexico kicked out the Spaniards and the Catholic Church. They were educating the peasants.
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