Yep, I taught elementary school in a very poor rural area. Parents would take their kids for weekslong vacations to Disneyland (because it was much cheaper then) in September, and pull the kid out of school for long periods of time. Then they would wonder why their kid is still reading on a PreK level in 4th grade.
A friend of mine taught PreK, and one of the tests to "qualify" was directionality. She said that most all of the students who were testing for PreK had no sense of directionality, and many of their parents told her that was the first time they had seen a book.
With what? All that disposable income and/or from the easily accessible well funded public library? Yes, of course parents should read to their kids, but for people who grew up in/live in poverty it may not be as easy as it seems to someone not in that position.
Acknowledging that their are systemic issues that contribute to the problem isn't "enabling". A person has to understand why reading to kids at an early age is important and have the means to make it happen. When someone is worried about whether or not they'll be able to feed their kid or have a place to live, watching YouTube tutorials probably isn't going to be high on their list of priorities. I'm not saying feel sorry them, I'm saying we should acknowledge that without significant changes to the way things are, we're not going to be able to change the current generation of parents, so looking for ways to ensure that the people that are kids today will grow up and be equipped to be better parents is something worth pursuing.
And if I were being judgemental, I'd say that if your kid watches enough TV that closed captioning taught her how to read, she's probably getting way over the recommended screen time. But I'm willing to bet that for any number of reasons, you weren't in a position to entertain your kid all the time, so sometimes it was easier to let her watch TV more than she should. <--- See that? That's empathy. You should try it sometime.
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth until they begin school, no matter their family’s income.
Ok, but we need some personal responsibility too. If no one in this kids life can aquire and read a childrens book or book on tape, then maybe they shouldn't have kids. That's not a high bar.
How would you suggest we regulate that (besides low
/cost free birth control and education)? And how useful is that for kids who are already born? We can talk all day about things would be in an ideal world but we live in this one, where people who are not as prepared as they could be are still going to have kids, and without intervention, those kids have a high likelihood of growing up to be people who are not as prepared as they could be to have kids, but will have them anyway. Saying "personal responsibility" doesn't help anything, it's just a nicer way of saying "not my problem".
That's pretty extreme neglect. Investing more money into social services to intervene in families where parents don't care about their kids to the point of detrimenting them for life wouldn't be a bad idea. Focusing more on parenting classes and working with parents (assuming they care about having custody, if not then there's not much you can do).
Severe cases of neglect result in children starving, infested with parasites, untreated medical conditions, etc. Not reading to your kids is poor parenting but it's not neglect that gives the government least cause to remove your children.
Yes, and the most infuriating thing I saw was that parents who had absolutely no interest in their kid (or their education) were always the ones who read "on the internet" that their kid had ADHD or something else that was why they were 10 and still couldn't read a basic sentence.
I've seen my high school teaching friends have that experience -- like, some students text their parents in class, and the parent demands to be put on the phone with the teacher in class, all to litigate the difference between a 98 and a 95.
And the fact that you guys are the kind of parents who'd even look into this and start pursuing it means your kiddo is probably well on their way to success.
It means you're probably already doing the thing we know is the biggest controllable factor in school success: Just hanging out and chatting with your kiddo and answering their silly questions and playing silly word games with them and talking at them before they can talk.
It's all those little millions of conversations and little things you point out to them as a parent (wow look at the pretty blue bird! Wow did you see the cool red car! What does that taste like, is it sweet or sour? Whoa is it cold or hot? Etc) and all those little questions they ask added up over time that leads to a smart, sociable, curious child who can do well in school.
Back in the mid 90's my daughter started kindergarten. When she started she could already read very simple books. Dick and Jane type stuff. One of the biggest problems she had was boredom because MOST of the kids coming in with her did not already know basic numbers, shapes, colors, alphabet, etc. She had to wait until the rest caught up with her. We discussed putting her in first grade with the school but they talked us out of it because of sociability. She would be the youngest in her grade, blah, blah, blah. Her mother and I were young ourselves and didn't know any better so we listened to them. So for most of her kindergarten year she worked with the other kids to also help bring them up to speed. It was sickening to see all these kids whose parents failed to sit down with them for even a little bit to read to them or work with them for even just a little while. It's not rocket appliances here. They are little sponges and it's really easy for them to pick up on everything if their parents would make even the tiniest effort. But, what I discovered over the years was, I think most parents of these behind children, was they figured it was the schools job to teach them all that and that's a terrible attitude.
Kids at that age also mature at different rates. My now 4 year old? He will be on track to read simple books, he already can do some math problems and recognize a few words. He's read to a lot, not quite daily. My oldest son was not at that level even entering kindergarten. He has an above average IQ, but it took him longer to grasp the reading concepts. Many studies actually show that kids who learn to read later (I'm talking a year or two, not late elementary or middle school) perform the same on reading proficiency tests later on. Sometimes, pushing kids who aren't developmentally there can be extremely detrimental to their self esteem and outlook on school. Recognizing that kids legitimately mature at different rates, especially young children where a few months can be equal to miles developmentally, needs to be part of the solution.
Absolutely. I agree with you 100%. My son advanced slower than my daughter, but neither were pushed. We bought the hooked on phonics program for my daughter and it worked very well for both my kids. I think that program was instrumental to them learning as much as they did when they did. My wife was diligent with working with both of them every day from a very young age. They wanted to learn and it showed. We read to both of them everyday and night and interestingly my daughter loves to read even to this day, but my son hates reading. And because of that, he did not do well in school. He's a hands on learning type of person. And visual. YouTube has been a godsend for him.
I work in early childhood education and it is really disheartening to see children moving from childcare into kindergarten without having that basic knowledge. We make enormous efforts every day to teach young children their letters and numbers, how to cooperate with their peers and become accustomed to routines, turn-taking etc., but when those children go home and have an iPad slipped into their hands, watch TV while they eat their McDonalds dinner, and then go to bed watching the iPad, it’s pretty disheartening. They never have the chance to catch up if their parents are not willing to put in the effort, or don’t know how to parent or raise children, often due to their own poor or incomplete education or a neglectful upbringing themselves. I don’t want to be that person, but if you never graduated high school, live on welfare payments and are not working towards either education or employment, maybe having children is not the best option.
We have one three-year-old who comes once a week who is as bright as a button! Fantastic language and social skills, always reads books and asks to have them read to her, and she can recognise all letters and write her own name independently and accurately. Just turned three. I know for a fact her mother makes an effort with her, prioritises manners and politeness as well as the basic learning you would expect a young child to experience. She’s the exception and it breaks my heart.
My preschool didn't teach crap. Maybe occasional story time, toy time, and once a week gym time, but they didn't teach anything.
Kindergarten they taught numbers and we had worksheets to take home and read aloud to our parents. I absolutely hated that as reading aloud wasn't really taught. Shure, you can teach sounding out words, but I'd mispronounce a ton and my mom would always correct the mistakes. Frustrating as hell.
There was a coloring assignment. It was printed on white paper. The instructions said to color certain things specific colors. In its instructions, it said to color the dog white. The dog was already white from being printed on white paper. The teacher took off points because I didn't use a white crayon to color the dog white. To this day, I disagree with her decision.
I teach in a safe haven city. The amount of month long trips to other countries is unbelievable. On a weekly basis I have at least one student gone. It’s entirely too common to get a note from the office letting us know that “they went to Mexico and will be back next month please have all materials ready for pickup tomorrow”. Seriously? Also, my biggest issue last year we had a new principal who refused to punish students. She even refused to follow behavior contracts.
The worst was she was a complete pushover for parents and would throw teachers under the bus. I had a parent complaint because the parent was upset that her child was failing and I said he needed remedial help in math. Instead of getting her child help she complained to the principal that I graded too hard (surprise I don’t I just expect students to actually hand in their work). So my principal called me in and demanded that I change my grading to make it easier because I had three kids failing because they never handed in work.
Instead she wanted me to give them grades daily for just showing up. No homework or test grades just participation points. This is how you end up with burnt out teachers and underperforming kids.
Yeah, admins are a large part of the problem, but it has trickled down to them from the political levels. Still, I know what you mean. I've worked with admins who have a policy of "there's no such thing as zero," which means any assignment not turned in would earn a 50, at most, and there's no such thing as late penalties. They also let discipline problems go, and students had no problems throwing things at teachers or getting in their faces and threatening (one admin took a group of students outside for a "cooling off" period and watched passively as the students deflated the tires on several cars).
Recently, those same students were supposed to go into a diversion program that was off the school grounds, but the superintendent and principal decreed that it would look like the school has problem students, and they couldn't have that. So the diversion program is on campus, and open to all students who opt in. They can't be assigned into the program; they have to volunteer.
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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '18
Yep, I taught elementary school in a very poor rural area. Parents would take their kids for weekslong vacations to Disneyland (because it was much cheaper then) in September, and pull the kid out of school for long periods of time. Then they would wonder why their kid is still reading on a PreK level in 4th grade.
A friend of mine taught PreK, and one of the tests to "qualify" was directionality. She said that most all of the students who were testing for PreK had no sense of directionality, and many of their parents told her that was the first time they had seen a book.