I had an interesting conversation with a fellow educator over the weekend. He told me that he attended a conference for reading specialists recently. At this conference, the main area of discussion was reading proficiency, and its importance in early elementary education. Seems like a "no brainer" to me. But what he told me next, left me absolutely speechless. He said that the speakers at this conference have confirmed what we all kind of "know" already. If a child is not a proficient reader by the third grade -- he is basically screwed. So much so, in fact, that studies are done nationally on reading proficiency scores in the third grade. And, that those scores, which show the percentage of children who are NOT proficient readers, is an ACCURATE GAUGE FOR THE PLANNING OF FUTURE PRISON CONSTRUCTION!!!
Dear God, when are we going to get with the program, and start aggressively pushing our children to read, read, read? It is NOT the school's responsibility to fully educate our children. It begins at home, and EARLY. Kindergarten is too late to begin to decode the complexity of our language. Hence, "No Child Left Behind", which translates to "No Child Gets Ahead"! We cannot continue to educate to the lowest common denominator and expect to produce anything but mediocrity.
What has happened to personal accountability and the pride of accomplishment (other than in athletic competition)? Our town doesn't even publish the Valedictorian and Salutatorian from our local districts any more! What a shame, shame, shame!
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3 comments:
It's truly scary and your stat illustrates that. Can't tell you the number of parent teacher conferences I've been in on over the course of 23 years to hear the teacher suggesting and sometimes pleading that the parent read to the child.
Maybe more reading will help my mild depression. I was a good reader when I was young, but not before kindergarten. I also need to lose at least 30 pounds because of diabetes. I'm hoping you will try something new, something, anything. I recommend swimming because its OK on joints. Good luck!
Hello,my name is yoshiki from Japan.Tonight,I happened to find your blog and read this post.And I was really excited to see the word "no-brainer",which I learned the other day, actually used in the living context written by English natives.I was so happy that I cited the sentences in my blog and introduced your blog to the readers of it.You can see the post from this address . http://ameblo.jp/eiken-eigo/entry-10070101183.html
Thank you.
-yoshiki
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