The Experts
By Mitch Berg
Remember learning to read?
I do.
We’ll come back to that.
Years ago, when I was looking for alternative ways of schooling my kids, I ran across the Sudbury Schools . The Sudbury model makes kids responsible for their own education. Radically so – nobody tells them what to learn and when. Literally – there is nothing saying “Kids have to be able to read or do math at a specified level by the time they’re X years old”. Teachers are there to help the kids learn what they ask to learn.
Nobody tells kids “Today it’s reading time”. The kids learn to read when they learn to read. Some learn by asking teachers to show them how; some, by asking other kids; others just translate the alphabet.
But while nobody tells Sudbury kids when or how to learn to read, they all do – by the time they’re eight, all of them read at or well beyond “grade level”.
One Sudbury advocate pointed out – i’m paraphrasing, here – that by age five, children learn a whole language, often more than one, along with a world of other material, all by absorbing it from people and the world around them, in their own ways.
Indeed, you have to work hard to prevent children from learning.
And at age six (or earlier, now), that’s exactly what the system does for most kids; forces them to abandon their own style of learning, and learn by sitting in straight lines and listening to someone tell them what and how to learn.
They point out that if kids learned how to speak their native language/s the way they are taught to read or do math or science, we’d have a generation of kids with “Speaking Disabilities”, complete with a class of clinicians earnestly treating it.
Anyway – learning to read.
Dad was an English teacher, and Mom read to me a lot as a kid. I learned my alphabet, and learned how letters and sounds corresponded, and one day when I was four, I clearly remember driving down I94 to pick up Dad at grad school at North Dakota state in Fargo, and seeing the word “FAR-go” on the sign on the freeway, and saying it out loud to the amazement of my mom and grandparents (but not, I suspect, my infant sister).
Come to learn there are three schools of thought for teaching kids how to read.
- Whole Word: If you’re a certain age, you might remember the “Sally Dick and Jane” books? They taught kids to recognize words by repeating them over and over, and associating them with sounds they recognized. It was probably what I did in the car that day on the way to Fargo – associated some sounds and letters with a word I’d been hearing a lot, since it’s where Dad had spent the summer.
- Phonetic: Learning to sound words out. OK, I’d done a bit of that in reading the sign. F sounds like “Eff”, “A” can be “ah”, and I sorta wung it. Better example: in third grade, my teacher pointed at a map to an island in the Pacific and asked who could tell her what she was pointing at. I raised miy hand, since even then I believed in faking it ’til I made it – and then started sounding out the unfamiliar and frankly weird word. “Huh Ah Wah…Yiy?” “Yes! Hawaiii”, she cheered, as I sat there, amazed, feeling like I’d broken a secret code by accident.
- Whole language: teaching kids to guess until they get it right.
I’m being a little flippant with that last, but we’ll come back to that in a moment.
We’ve known for decades that people have different learning styles. Some learn by doing, some by watching others do, some by doing while being supervised, some by reading and analyzing, and so forth. It’s utterly uncontroversial.
But somehow, when it comes to children, educational theorists throw that out the window. I’ve written before about the dismal failiure of the “Park your ass in a seat for six hours a day and move when you’re told to” model of education in teaching boys.
Now, it turns out we have an epidemic of children who can’t read – and it appears to be linked to an educational fad related to the third bullet point, “Whole Language Reading” – and the wholesale logrolling of teachers by “experts” and a thriving, well-oiled consultant class.
I listen to NPR so you don’t have do – but there are some pearls among the swine. And one of them is this piece, from one of NPR’s “investigative reporting” podcasts. about the history, effects, and star power of “Whole Language” learning, and the way a whole lot of NPR-listening, laptop-class parents discovered the whole scam when they were stuck at home watching their teachers flail away on Zoom.
It’s – trust me on this – worth a listen:
To sum up: For decades, teachers essentially ignored the fact that kids learn reading the same way humans learn everything – via combination of methods unique to most every individual – and imposed a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching reading based on one scholar and “expert’s” very striated study of child cognition. The consultants latched onto the experts, and sold the schools on their, for lack of a better word, product.
And today, a staggering percentage of kids can’t read – far, far worse than when “Why Can’t Johnny Read” first came out and started the furor over failed education…
…68 years ago.
Remember this, by the way, as the DFL moves to destroy home schooling.
February 18th, 2023 at 2:44 pm
⬆️ You appear to be wasting both energy and time addressing a problem that you cannot change, is not real or important to those living outside of Pennsylvania.
February 18th, 2023 at 2:58 pm
Here is Emery complaining that some guy named George Santos got elected to a Long Island congressional district.
http://www.shotinthedark.info/wp/?p=84141&cpage=2#comment-242890
February 18th, 2023 at 3:00 pm
emery
always quick to correct others but you can’t muster the courage to address this simple question…
At what point in your mother’s pregnancy with you would it have become unacceptable for her to abort you?
While you’re at it could you explain where this came from…
The Constitution before amendment said Clarence Thomas should be counted as 3/5ths of a person.
February 18th, 2023 at 3:29 pm
To those who think Fetterman put running for office over his health, I offer George Santos as an example of an elected official who put running for office over truth, honesty, public service…you get the picture. Who is the one who really needs help?
February 18th, 2023 at 3:31 pm
Pig — any news on your fundraising for crisis pregnancy and adoption services? Let me point you in the right direction.
https://www.amnioncpc.org/
February 18th, 2023 at 3:35 pm
emery squeeked; “Who is the one who really needs help?”
I would suggest anyone too cowardly to answer this question…
At what point in your mother’s pregnancy with you would it have become unacceptable for her to abort you?
Or who can’t explain this comment…
The Constitution before amendment said Clarence Thomas should be counted as 3/5ths of a person.
February 18th, 2023 at 3:41 pm
We all know Emery to be a pathological liar, for example I’ve never mentioned the “crisis pregnancy and adoption services” he keeps nattering on about, to suggest I did is Emery lying yet again. meanwhile emery can’t, as a self identified expert on abortion answer this question…
At what point in your mother’s pregnancy with you would it have become unacceptable for her to abort you?
Emery did unquestionably make this comment
“The Constitution before amendment said Clarence Thomas should be counted as 3/5ths of a person.”
which he refuses to substantiate with a direct cite to the constitution
February 18th, 2023 at 3:58 pm
I’m going to take that as a NO. You apparently have no interest in doing anything positive for the pro-life movement other than shitposting on SiTD…. sad really….
February 18th, 2023 at 4:06 pm
emery mewled
“sad really….”
What is truly sad Emery, is a man who is terrified at the prospect of having to honestly answer this question…
At what point in your mother’s pregnancy with you would it have become unacceptable for her to abort you?
While you’re at it explain where this came from
The Constitution before amendment said Clarence Thomas should be counted as 3/5ths of a person.
February 18th, 2023 at 4:09 pm
Your shit-posting doesn’t improve with length.
February 18th, 2023 at 4:10 pm
You appear to be wasting both energy and time addressing a problem that you cannot change, is not real or important to those living outside of Pennsylvania.
When the ballots counted in Pennsylvania flip control of the Senate. It’s real and important to everyone. Where I’m wasting my time is in engaging a troll.
February 18th, 2023 at 4:14 pm
Emery sniveled
“Your shit-posting doesn’t improve with length.”
The point you miss sweetheart is I’m not going away and neither is this question…
At what point in your mother’s pregnancy with you would it have become unacceptable for her to abort you?
and while you’re at it explain where I’d find this in the Constitution….
The Constitution before amendment said Clarence Thomas should be counted as 3/5ths of a person.
February 18th, 2023 at 4:27 pm
Mr d, if it comes down to it — Pennsylvania’s Democrat Governor will replace Fetterman with a Democrat…
February 18th, 2023 at 4:34 pm
emery
You present yourself as an expert on the ethics of abortion so it should not be difficult for you to answer this question…
At what point in your mother’s pregnancy with you would it have become unacceptable for her to abort you?
As a bonus question where can I find the text in the Constitution that supports your claim:
The Constitution before amendment said Clarence Thomas should be counted as 3/5ths of a person.
February 18th, 2023 at 4:40 pm
Mr d wrote: “When the ballots counted in Pennsylvania flip control of the Senate. It’s real and important to everyone.”
So, two things to mention here. First, this was a midterm election where Republicans had a huge historical turnout advantage, hence all the red wave talk leading up to the election, and anything less than a blowout victory by Republicans should be considered a total loss.
Second, what you’re neglecting to mention is the quality of the Trump endorsed candidates in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. These are the reasons republicans lost the senate.
February 18th, 2023 at 4:45 pm
Emery on February 18, 2023 at 4:40 pm
posted yet another non sequitur reply
why don’t you try being on point once in a while peaches. Since you present yourself as an expert on the ethics of abortion it should not be difficult for you to answer this question…
At what point in your mother’s pregnancy with you would it have become unacceptable for her to abort you?
As a bonus question where can I find the text in the Constitution that supports your claim:
“The Constitution before amendment said Clarence Thomas should be counted as 3/5ths of a person.”
February 18th, 2023 at 4:53 pm
OMG this is hilarious!
The house can impeach Biden. Andy McCarthy, nu trumpster, is pushing for this for Slow Joe’s unwillingness to control the southern border.
anything less than a blowout victory by Republicans should be considered a total loss.
February 18th, 2023 at 4:54 pm
Someone should explain to Emery posting one stupid statement after another does not add up to an intelligent statement.
Off his meds again, I suppose.
February 18th, 2023 at 6:09 pm
Here is frequently wrong, never in doubt Emery accusing congressman Matt Gaetz of molesting underage girls:
http://www.shotinthedark.info/wp/?p=79425#comment-223447
Gaetz was investigated & found innocent. You would do very well in life, if you read Emery’s comments, and acted as though absolutely the opposite was the truth. The Brexit vote would fail, Hillary would win over Trump by a landslide in 2016, Mueller would prove that Trump had colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election from Hillary . . . and on and on and on and on. I don’t believe that any internet commenter has ever been as wrong as Emery has been wrong, and always on topics he claimed some expert knowledge.
February 18th, 2023 at 6:12 pm
Antifa arrestees. Notice their complexion. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FpHyBqnWIAApO_7?format=jpg&name=large
February 19th, 2023 at 9:31 pm
I would agree that it’s horrendous that the left managed to hide Fetterman’s disability to perform his office from a plurality of voters who didn’t know or care, but the flip side is that it’s horrendous that a plurality of voters didn’t care about the obvious signs of disability in the candidate.
And it’s horrendous that Trump supported a carpetbagger over an electable candidate, too. Lots of blame to go around.
February 20th, 2023 at 11:31 am
I would agree that it’s horrendous that the left managed to hide Fetterman’s disability to perform his office from a plurality of voters who didn’t know or care, but the flip side is that it’s horrendous that a plurality of voters didn’t care about the obvious signs of disability in the candidate.
Substitute “Biden” for “Fetterman” and it applies equally.