HOW I LEARNED TO
READ
Recently I have been
working with a youngster in an effort to improve his reading skills. It
surprised me that the teaching of phonics were no longer being used in
the public school system here. It seems the words are "recognized" as a
complete entity and spoken. If the word is not in the "recognized" list
of words it is simply not known.
I could imagine
many reasons for this but none of them made good sense.
The real question
that came to my mind was how I learned to read. There was no one teaching
me at age 3 and I remember reading simple words at that age. I was very
good at reading in elementary school and seldom completed a book report
or read a book. The teachers didn't count that against me because I was
a very good reader; but how? Now, I think I know. The young man that I
am working with here asked me to get more cartoons on the TV. He really
likes Tom and Jerry. Well, I thought the least expensive way to do that
would be to buy videos of the cat and mouse team that I used to read in
comic books years ago. That's when it hit me right between the eyes! I
read comic books. All of us '50's kids did. There are no comic books today.
Watching TV doesn't require reading skills. Wow! Now I know why so many
kids can't read like they could and should.
Bring back comic
books. They are around in antique stores and on the Internet but seldom
elsewhere. Since they haven't really printed new ones for years, they will
be old ones or reprints of the old ones that I read as a child. Just the
same, get your reading child comic books and turn off the TV for a time
every day. It might work wonders!
Quaedan
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