My buddy Randy Kirk has started a new project designed to get kids reading by age five. Considering that most kids can't read when they graduate high school, this is pretty ambitious.
Nineteen years ago, my wife and I decided to teach our 4-year-old daughter to read. We had purchased this 150-year-old reader, and it seemed like it might be fun to see how far we could get teaching her with a book published in 1840. Amazingly, within the year, she was reading at the third grade level.Is she a genius? We’d like to think so, but since that time, both of our boys have gone through the same program, and with even greater success at earlier ages.
Out of these early efforts a program for early reading was developed. Others have now tested the system with the same kind of success. And now, we are ready to offer it to you.
There's no doubt that our public school system is broken, and this looks like just the sort of thing I'd want to start my children with to make sure they aren't dependent on some government bureaucracy for their education.
Apparently you have no experience with public schools outside of the Los Angeles.
Way over here, in Wisconsin, literacy and reading comprehension are areas our students score very highly in.
LAUSD may be broken, but I assure you there are many public schools that are not.
I'm sure that the LAUSD would be happy with a read-by-eighteen program!
I would be cautious on pushing children to read early, or to develop any particular skill early. Each child develops on each skill at his own rate. And trying to accelerate a child's development usually has unintended consequences.
My daughter was reading books before she turned five. I took great pride in this. On the other hand, she had no interest in numbers. At five she could probably count to twenty or thirty, but only under duress. When I tried to interest her in combining or dividing groups of pennies, she thought I was a lunatic for being interested in something so obviously boring.
My son, who turns five in July, is nowhere close to reading. He can sound out small words, but only very slowly. I don't expect him to read small books for another year. On the other hand, he can count to a thousand, and tries to delay bedtime by asking me the sums of various pairs of two-digit numbers.
When you're a parent, Michael, my advice is not to take credit for your child's successes, and not to blame yourself for what you perceive as your child's shortcomings. Children are born on rails. You can either help your child move down the track that he was born on, or you can waste time and tears wishing that the child had been born on a different track.
With early grade-school skills like reading, writing, and basic math---or even with baby and toddler skills like walking, talking, and toilet training---all the children get there eventually, when they're ready. Children that age don't need education; they just need love.
Kids OFTEN read by the age of five. They don't have to be pushed, they just have to be taught. It's not a question of moving too fast, young minds thirst for knowlege of any sort.
Oh, and Ben, "Born on rails"? What a bunch of tripe! We all have free will, even our kids. As parents we guide them before they have any rudder of their own. And if you have not been guiding your kids, then I wonder who has, because it's a plain and simple fact that there are lots of folks lining up for the job. Their frineds, TV, public schools, the list goes on. "Born on rails" indeed!
Mike, there's lots of council out there, and I'm sure you'll avail yourself to the best of it.
Haven't seen a single negative yet with any of the kids who have done the program. The oldest is almost 17 now, and has been devouring adult level Christian literature for 5 years (read the entire Left Behind Series. Math skills excellent. Writing at the top of his class. Well rounded, well liked by peers and adults.
"I would be cautious on pushing children to read early, or to develop any particular skill early. Each child develops on each skill at his own rate. And trying to accelerate a child's development usually has unintended consequences." - Ben Bateman
Spoken like a true Lefitst.
By the time I went to kindergarten, I could read, tell time, do simple math and had learned the rudaments of clear thought. Why? Because my Mom took the trouble to make it fun using an "old fashioned" reader. (It was fun because we did it together, and she cared.)
Your theories are for yourself. But if you want to do your children a favor, TEACH THEM EARLY AND OFTEN! Once they learn to love learning, and I mean the real thing as opposed to the "how do you feeeeel about that?" nonsense, they will have tools that will serve them and their country for the rest of their lives.
When my daughter was in day-care kindergarten the teacher used to tell me that it was obvious that I and my wife talked to her like a real person. It showed in her work.
Your Kerryesque "plan" of "they'll do it when they fell like it," amounts to tossing children into the intellectual waste-bin. Yet, despite it's being proven worthless every day, you still shove your leftist bill-of-goods down unsuspecting throats.
Thank G-d some people are coming to realize they've been had by the likes of Bill Bateman, who are "educators" in name only.
Dallas and ytba: It's funny that the two of you would call my view 'tripe' and 'Leftist', when a core leftist belief has always been that people are infinitely malleable. The main intellectual justification for all of Communism's atrocities was that they were necessary to create the New Man, who would create a new society without greed, selfishness, etc. Feminists struggled for decades to prove that there are no inherent differences between boys and girls, or men and women. Through all the consequent suffering, human nature has remained unchanged.
You two can have your theories; I'll stick with my real-world experiences. Go raise two children of your own, or talk with several parents who have done so, then come back and tell me I'm wrong.
Me and my two younger brothers were all reading before kindergarten. Let me tell you, it's real cute to see a 5 year old reading a scripture at church.
But don't jump all over Ben, folks. It's true that kids will have different aptitudes and pick up things at different rates. I was multiplying numbers at 3 without pennies, but I wasn't particularly interested in reading until 4 when my 2 year old brother started doing it. (Although I did know my letters.) It's clear from Ben's post that he did introduce both his children to reading (and other areas) at a young age, but one picked up on it faster than the other. His 4 year old "only" being able to sound out small words is hardly an educational failing on his part, especially since the kid has other areas where he is excelling. If he's 6 and doesn't know his letters, or 10 and unable to read a small book, or 17 and never read anything longer than a comic book, then you can start calling him a stupid liberal like the ones running a lot of our schools.
There is a balance between pushing kids too hard or too little. Either one takes the fun out of learning.
The system Michael is referring to is based on close parental bonding, preferrably the parent who spends the least time with the child normally. This way the reading is seen as a treat, not even a chore.
I thought Ben made plenty of sense there, and for the record I was taught to read before going to school, and one of the things I look forward to most about raising a family is the opportunity to teach my kids things about maths and books that I think are cool. The best advice in this set of comments is not to take credit or blame for your childrens' exploits -- that's a really tricky one.
I have to say, I don't think getting children interested in reading is all that hard, where's the need for special systems? Young kids in the UK come home and talk to their parents about phonics, it's pretty confusing. Just read to them. Put some showbiz into it, do all the voices for the different characters. I'd be surprised if any children can resist a truly enthusiastic parent reading to him/her. Once a child wants to read, I reckon it's pretty hard to stop them.
Michael,
Way off topic, but where would I find possible betting odds on the Orange County sheriff's race (carona vs. hunt)?
Thanks, Robert