MEMBER BLOG TAG: alphabet
| Friday, May 18, 2012 1:06PM | | | | Somebody Hates Literacy | Tags: phonics, whole language, sight-words, literacy, k-12, reading, alphabet, Dolch, high-frequency words, comprehension, public schools,
| | | | After the economy, the biggest problem facing the United States is that we have an illiteracy crisis. We have 50,000,000 functional illiterates. It’s a big problem...and an even bigger mystery.
Who are these people, these sociopaths, who continue to promote reading instruction which almost guarantees that children won’t learn to read? Is this the far-left trying to force communism on the country one illiterate person at a time? Is this the far-right trying to create an unthinking citizenry? Or is it just ruthless, conniving SOB’s somewhere in the middle?
My brother recently made me sit through a documentary titled Zeitgeist. Toward the end there was a memorable comment to the effect that our Department of Education is getting exactly the schools that it is paying for.... | | | | | | | Monday, January 30, 2012 2:15PM | | | | Writers, Illiteracy, and Ed Reform | Tags: literacy, reading, phonics, alphabet, sight words, dolch words, whole word, whole language, high-frequency words, meaning, comprehension, sophistry
| | | | Actual title wouldn't fit: What Writers Should Know About Illiteracy
If you Google “right to read” and similar phrases, you will be taken willy-nilly to two very different types of concerns.
The common concern is censorship, copyright law, and assistive technologies. The problem here is that people don’t have ACCESS to books.
My concern, much less common, is summed up in one word: ILLITERACY. Tens of millions of Americans have not been taught to read properly. They have access to books but so what? They can’t read them.
Illiteracy is a far bigger (and more intellectually interesting) problem than most educated people assume. The US is said to have 50,000,000 functional illiterates. (More than 1,000,000 are in jail.) This is a stupid waste and, I’d say, a crime.
I’ve... | | | | | |
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