And the best way to teach reading is...

 And the best way to teach reading is ….

 

Every decade or so another “right way to teach reading” happens.  Once the latest "right way" is anointed, all children must be taught that way.  Whole cabals rise up with special training, certificates and renewals.  One cannot use the method unless one has been to the mecca for training and been blessed as being able to use the method.  And, of course, whatever the method is, it is research based.

Throughout all of this time, the “right” methods have had dramatically varying approaches.  From strict, scripted phonics based methods to loosely organized approaches around a child’s everyday experiences.  With every method there has been a 3^rd reading group, the kids who just don’t get it.  We all know who they are regardless of which euphemism is used for the name of the group.  

There are some commonalities upon which we all agree.   Children need a good basis in reading.  It is the foundation not just for the rest of their learning but also for how they feel about themselves as learners.  Reading is a skill that the vast majority of children will not learn on their own.  They need some sort of structured program.  A strong literacy program requires that the child learn to decode the printed symbol into a sound AND having done that acquire meaning from those sounds.  Any approach that emphasizes one area over the other will fail both the children and the purpose of learning to read.  

The vast majority of educators believe that children need some basic phonics instruction.  But experience and research that is independent of special interests have not identified any particular kind of phonics instruction other than there should be some.

Children come into our schools with a wide variety of backgrounds.  Some of those backgrounds deliver children who are ripe for instruction with a background of having done some “reading”.  Other kids are at the other end of the spectrum but they, too, need to be taught to read in a method that works for them.

The fact is there is NO method that works best nor is appropriate for all children.  If we really want research based reading instruction for our schools, this is what research and researchers over and over agree on. The best reading method for every child is one taught by a knowledgeable  and skilled teacher regardless of the method. The best way to teach reading is with a very good teacher.

When is free speech not free?

 When is free speech not free speech?

 

Tanner Cross is an elementary school teacher in Virginia.  It is the policy in Virginia for teachers to use the chosen names and pronouns of transgender students.  Mr. Cross testified at a Board meeting that although he was a teacher, he served God first and “will not affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa because it is against my religion.”  The next day the district put Cross on administrative leave with pay and limited his access to school events, asserting that his comments have a “disruptive impact” on the operation of the school.  Tanner went to court to protest.  A lower court issued an injunction in favor of the teacher.  The district appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court.   That court too supported the injunction.

The Virginia high court used a 1968 Supreme Court decision that supported a teacher’s free speech rights under the First Amendment in matters of school policy.   But while the teacher had a right to speak out against the policy, he did not have a right to disobey the policy.  The school district has a right to maintain workplace efficiency and to reduce disruption.

Now the issue becomes, what happens in the everyday running of the school.  How will the school district balance the teacher’s right to free speech and its interest in maintaining a smooth-running school.  

The answer lies at the boundary where free speech bumps up against action.  Individuals may speak freely but they cannot advocate the overthrow of the organization or its policies nor may they behave (as opposed to speaking) in a way that is disruptive.  If a teacher used his/her free speech rights to create and cause disruption in the operation of the school, that free speech would cross the boundary.

This guide is somewhat akin to yelling fire in a crowded room where there was no fire.  Teachers, as with all citizens, need to decide when a public or employer policy violates their basic core values as individuals.  When that happens, staff should argue for their point of view.  If arguments do not change policy, then the staff person needs to make the personal decision of whether or not he/she wishes to remain a part of the organization.  Disrupting the peaceful operation of the organization is not an option.

There needs to be acceptable channels for staff to disagree with public and/or school policy for whatever reasons the staff person may have.  But those rights and liberties, as with all rights and liberties, also come with responsibility to sustain the orderly operation of the school and allow the school to continue in its basic function.  At the junction of disruption and speech, free speech is no longer free.

Teach Hate No More

 Teach Hate no More

 

Folksingers of the ‘60’s urged teachers and all citizens to “teach war no more”.  The bible asks that we give up violence for peace.   Why is that a lesson humanity cannot learn?  

We spend huge amounts of money on war but very little to teach about peace. Then we are surprised when all the money spent on war does not bring peace.  Peace begins with the acceptance of difference among us.  We do not need to agree on the best way to worship God, nor even that there is a God that needs to be worshipped.  What we need to agree on is that we each have the right to our individual cultures and belief systems as long as the exercise of those beliefs do not put others at risk.

The first recorded hatred of others is 146 BC when a Roman Senator campaigned that Carthage must be destroyed.   In the last 100 years alone, over 12 genocides have been recognized recognized by historians. A genocide is an organized plan to extinguish an entire group of people.  And that does not begin to indicate the number of people who have been hurt on an individual and/or societal basis out of pure bigotry.   In our own country we have worked to destroy the Native American culture, segregated African Americans in all manner of ways, redlined people from living where they wish because of race or faith, confiscated property and required that Japanese-American citizens move to internment camps. Even today there are multiple artifacts that still reduce women's rights.  The war against women in Asia and the middle east continues unabated.  People seem willing to take up arms against those with differing political views and/or shades of difference in religious faith.

Is hatred of difference built into our DNA?  Why over this long history of recorded time can’t we move past this uncomfortableness with difference?

Our only hope is if we change the educational experience for our children and that begins with the teachers.   School systems across the country are being polarized to only teach history that fits the comfort zone.  We need to know how we have gone wrong so we can turn the ship around and do right.   Educators need to get a backbone and take responsibility for what we are teaching.   Education is really the only hope.  But educators have always been sheep.  Perhaps if we could get a decent herder the rest would follow and we would teach hate no more.

 

 

Why Can't Americans Teach their Children how to speak?

Why Can’t Americans Teach their Children how to speak?

 

In the old 1960’s musical, My Fair Lady, Rex Harrison asks the musical question “Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?”.   One could ask that same question of Americans today.

Ask a student to diagram a sentence and he/she would probably think that was something for Instagram.   

It used to be that one could count on newscasters and reporters to model good grammar.  Not anymore.  Then  the print media became the last bastion of decent grammar, after all they do have editors to look over the work before it goes into print.  Guess again!  A recent headline in Food & Wine delivered this incorrect sentence, “The next generation of spice companies are delivering better tasting spices while disrupting an outmoded industry.”  Evidently, the spice industry is not the only thing that is outmoded.  The subject of that sentence is “generation” which you may notice is singular and; therefore, takes a singular verb- IS delivering would be correct.

Baltimore magazine did its annual best in Baltimore listing.  It was excited to announce that the winner in the “stationary” category was a calligraphy company.  Clearly the copy editor was never taught that the “e” in stationery was just like the “e” in letters and hence was used when referring to paper products.  Either that or this calligrapher is stationary and never moving.

Appropriate use of pronouns is a totally lost skill.  Technically well-educated people will mix pronoun tense.   “Me and Robert are going to the movies, do you want to go?”.    REALLY! How about Robert and I are going to the movies?   Or “When you are finished, please give that report to David and I”   Most of us would never say “please give that report to I”, but add another person’s name and reason seems to flee from “me”.  

Don’t even get me started on the use of plural pronouns for a singular person.   I get that an individual who is transgender may not feel comfortable in either gender but she/he should be even less comfortable as a multiple personality.  A transgender person often takes a different name to match his/her gender identity.   Just match a pronoun to that identity.

I have been told that email and texting have led to the loss of grammatical skills.  I also know that years ago school districts stopped teaching grammar.   I am not a fan of testing but I will bet if end-of-English-course testing included grammar, we could get back to it fairly quickly email and texting notwithstanding.

Lack of STEM skills isn’t the only test of an educational system. We keep throwing money at education but we still can’t teach our  children how to speak?