My last post listed reasons why many children don’t learn to read. Poverty was behind many of the items. Poor students attend poor schools where they miss out on the arts, a whole curriculum, even qualified, well prepared teachers. Students might end up in “no excuses” charter schools with only digital learning. But, next to […]
Setting Children Up to Hate Reading
Any educator or parent who understands the beauty of reading and the importance of helping a child learn to do it right was appalled to read two recent articles about the subject. Both should make all of us concerned that children are being set up to hate reading. They are being pushed to read earlier […]
Reading Instruction—Same Old Ugly Story
A conversation on Facebook about reading became touchy yesterday, reminding me that you only need to scratch the surface to find serious differences when it comes to education and public policy. While many come together against Common Core State Standards, yesterday’s arguing resulted from the same old differences about how to approach reading…phonics or whole […]
Drat Common Core and Potty iPads! Use This Instead to Teach a Child to Read
Don’t bank on narrow Common Core English language arts skills to teach your child to read. From what I see and hear, over and over, CC increases stress and reduces a lot of students to tears. It pushes very young children to read more difficult material before they are developmentally ready, and it focuses too […]
Oregon’s Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction Rob Saxton Calls Himself an SOB: I Concur
While many of us focused on New York’s Ed. Commissioner John King this past weekend, I also watched two YouTube videos that were deeply disturbing from the other side of the country. They both involve Oregon’s Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction Rob Saxton. Saxton’s background consists of being a teacher (I can’t find what he […]
Mr. Duncan—A Few Reasons Why I Question Your September 30th Speech, “Beyond the Beltway Bubble.”
Arne Duncan takes a lot of criticism from educators. They have never seen him as one of their own. For me personally, I wanted Linda Darling-Hammond to get the job. I don’t always agree with Darling-Hammond, but I do respect her as an educator and a researcher. When Mr. Duncan was hired I and a […]
Narrative Writing—Why We Should Give a [Expletive]
It’s been a year since David Coleman, president of the College Board and architect of the Common Core State Standard initiative, gave a speech to a New York audience, shocking many when he, while discussing narrative writing, said “as you grow up in this world you realize people really don’t give a [expletive] about what […]