Comments on: Some Read, Some Memorize Words

By: Anna

Anna — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:11:15 +0000

Rich, thanks to my mother I learned to read the same way by the age of 3, also. In first grade I already had a 6th grade reading level. I homeschooled most of my kids for about 8 years because public education is so bad. My 4 year old has recently expressed an interest in reading and in a just a few days of playing letter sound games ( what is the first sound in pig?, etc, first identify the sound then the corresponding letter) he has come a very long way. He now understands why c-a-t spells cat. It IS that easy but the parents have to be involved.
Anna

By: rancherlady

rancherlady — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:24:29 +0000

Dear Gus: The sad truth is that most teachers LOATHE bright kids, particularly bright, achieving children. My daughter qualifed for, and began, Kindergarten when she was four. Took a test for it. Never mind that she could read on a 6th grade level, her teacher whacked her for not being able to cut and paste to her standards. My son was doing even better (a more experienced mother) 7 years later, and his “master teacher” Wilkerson prophesied nastily that Andrew would come to a bad end because he wasn’t neat. What can you say? You can beat neatness into a kid, but you will destroy the spark when you do. They will get over being messy; they don’t get over being reduced to dull normal status. LBT I used Doman’s work with Andrew. Wow!

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:53:40 +0000

Gus,

First, my compliments to you and your wife for being PARENTS. I’d also be willing to bet that you’ve been their friends from their earliest days.

As for the teachers you encountered, the one who tried to hold your daughter back is the one who should have been fired. Of course her simple lack of observation in taking 3/4 of the school year to figure out that you daughter could read should’ve gotten her fired in the first with her comment on your daughter’s refusal to “rough house it” with her peers being the cherry on the firing sundae!

On the other hand, the teacher who WAS fired for being exactly what a good teacher should be reminds me of my own first grade teacher. She was feared by almost every student and their parents (but not myself or my parents) because she actually taught. Worse than that, she demanded proper behaviour in the classroom. Her name was Belle Pearson and I was fortunate to have her the last year she taught before retirement.

It’s a pleasure to hear from you.

Richard Marmo

By: Gus Karmack

Gus Karmack — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 02:57:18 +0000

Both our daughters were able to read before starting kindergarten at age 5. We took a direct interest in their education so they both excelled. We did spend some money on the Domen System which worked very well with our first but was of no interest to our second. Interestingly, three quarters of the way through her kindergarten year our oldest’s teacher took me aside when I went to pick her up from school one day and said in a low voice: “Did you know your child could read? I saw her do it when we took the class into the library today for the first time.”

It took that long for a TEACHER to find out what her students were capabile of! Then, at the end of the year she brought me in for a parent – teacher conference and told me she thought our daughter might not be ready for first grade. Why? Because during recess she preferred to play in the sand box building things instead of running around with the other children and “rough housing it”. Needless to say; when she saw the look on my face she backtracked and our daughter entered first grade and did superbly right on through college.

Our younger daughter had an excellent first grade teacher at the same school who was amazing with the students and taught them far more than they learned during the rest of their days in that elementary school. And yes, she was fired for not teaching to the study guide produced by the “Glass Palace” – the Broward County Florida School Board.

God Help Us!

I have the honor to be, respectfully yours.

By: rancherlady

rancherlady — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:44:54 +0000

Dear Oliver:

Thanks for the great e-mail! There ARE different learning styles. I want hard copy, in my hands. My daughter learns at the speed of light if she HEARS the information. My son, the wretch, has an eidetic memory! You earned the equivalent of a “get out of jail free” card with me. If you want to discuss this further, please write me at ranchLT4@gmail.com. Regards, Linda Brady Traynham

By: rancherlady

rancherlady — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:41:45 +0000

Dear TN: My compliments to you and your wife. There IS no greater luxury than a stay-at-hom mom. I would love to hear how old your son is and how well he is doing in life. ranchLT4@gmail.com

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:04:37 +0000

TN and Oliver,

Many thanks for your comments and corroboration of the position that both Linda I have staked out relative to the literacy/illiteracy problem. All of us have been fortunate to have not only learned to read the right way, but have also acquired a love of reading along the way. I would also suggest that reading well in combination with a love of reading (most of the time the two go together) also cultivates an insatiable curiosity and drive to know, leading inevitably to life-long self-education.

Those who have ‘learned’ to read by any method other than phonics simply will never know what they have missed. Nor the richness that reading brings to their lives.

Richard Marmo

By: Oliver Burrows

Oliver Burrows — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:56:35 +0000

Our oldest daughter came to my wife when she was two and asked my wife was sounds the letters made. By the time she was in kindergarten, she was reading at the fifth grade level, and when taking the ACT tests, she earned a perfect score of 36 on the English portion. All my wife and i did was answer her questions and read to her. We did that with each of our other three children with varying degrees of success (our youngest struggles with spelling but liked to read hours at a time when she was in high school).

Tfor he problem in the public schools (at least relative to the issue of reading) has been the shift to whole language. Both Ms. Traynhan and Mr. Marmo are correct; it does not take a village (or multi-hundred dollar curriculum) to teach a child to read. There are some whose learning styles (see Gardner’s eight learning styles for additional detail) make it more difficult to grasp the phonics system, but I, who am a global learner with auditory and visual propensities, came to love reading at a very young age and had ample books and not-so-ample distractions such that I am told that I used to read the encyclopedia and/or dictionary as a child. Go figure . . . .

By: TN Thompson

TN Thompson — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:49:13 +0000

I was taught to read, at about age four, by my grandmother who had been a country school teacher. She used the same techniques you just described plus comic books. I decided that it was too important an function to leave to the schools and so my wife and I taught our son to read well before he started school.