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This could be interesting . . .
In the UK at the moment there's big publicity being given to the latest government decision on how children should learn to read (you know, they way THEY say it should be done, and no other). We were listening to this on the radio yesterday and DH (psycho-linguist specialising in language acquisition) and DMIL (early-years/preschool teaching guru) were absolutely furious.
DH stomps out of the room saying 'if they bring this in she (DD18months) is not going to school, we'll teach her ourselves'!!
Could be fun . . .
Zillah
Comments
would it help to contact your MP?
Or would that make a difference?
Well
It would help as far as venting and letting them know that there are counter opinions, but it's an extremely popular 'back to basics' type policy. The Sun newspaper are backing it enthusiastically (Becky and other UK-ites, you know what that means! For non-UK bods, The Sun is a popular tabloid newspaper whose 'The Sun Says' comments have a funny way of ending up government policy, whatever party is in power. Gosh, I've become so cynical.) I think its basically a useful simplistic tool to allow them to say they're tackling a complex and difficult subject.
Meanwhile DH has a bee in his bonnet and is thinking about setting up a school of our own!
Zillah
woohoo!
Go, homeschool!
Lynn Siprelle, Editor
back to basics??
the way I heard it was there was something about 'synthetic phonics' - whatever the hell that means. Whatever happened to just sitting down and reading with your kids?? I think there should be laws against not doing that, at least until they are able to read Harry Potter level books independently. The world would be a much more civilised place if parents could be imprisoned for neglecting to encourage their kids to love reading.
you've got a few years yet Zillah... My bet is that the whole fuss will have died down by then and they'll have tried another two or three 'new' or 'back to basics' systems by then. None of which will have worked because this is really a parent's job, not a teacher's.
Kerri.
ps. I volunteer with the lowest literacy group in my son's year and it's depressing to watch them. It's also depressing to hear them talking about letters, because they use the sound not the name of the letter, which I personally find infuriating. My kids learnt the alphabet from Big Bird, and it's tough to sing that song if ou use the letter sounds not names (try it, you'll see!).
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