Best children’s books

A prominent Virginia legislator said in 1876: “Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe.”  by Charles Yancey.  Back then, freedom of the press was very important.  Why should freedom of the press matter now if people can’t read and write well?

People today are misinformed and even uninformed.  Heck, people today take freedom of speech for granted.  Everyone has an opinion but no one wants to listen to differing opinions.   So freedom of the press isn’t important anymore because most people aren’t able to read well to understand what they read.  

So why then do our educators delve in stupid philosophies that won’t improve the amount of knowledge or build character? 

Reading and writing are synonymous.   If you learn to read well, what follows is an ability to write well.  So, historian Gloria L Main of the University of Colorado say’s in “Measuring ‘literacy’ is problematical . . . because the term encompasses not one skill but two, each with a separate range of competency.”  — Reading well means you you will think well.  Who cares if the they’re separate skills? 

American Heritage videos on Amazon Prime say that literacy was an American obsession from the get-go–Literacy is my obsession. It’s the reason I home-school.   In 1642, the Massachusetts legislature passed a law empowering them to assess the education of children “to read and understand the principles of religion and the capital laws of this country.” 

And 1770 Thomas Jefferson drafted a bill to include all children (boys and girls) to learn to read and write.   

So what is the intent of personalized learning? Is it to teach all children to read and write? Doubt it.

It seems today, America is going backwards instead of forwards, because 30 million Americans can’t read and write.  And our educators aren’t focusing on teaching reading and writing. In fact, they’re focusing on STEM.  It’s unlikely that a literate populous is the goal but something else.  But Karl Marx is on the rise in America.  And hell’a knows where this will lead us. 

So that’s the first mistake, focusing on the wrong things in education–personalized learning. As Catherine Gewertz writes, “personalized learning…[is] a philosophy, not a set of instructional practices.” What is the aim with this? Is the aim, to teach reading and writing or is the aim, to teach a secular philosophy that leaves most American’s illiterate and dependent on government?   

The second mistake, replacing basic foundational instruction in lieu of  technology instruction. This may hurt more than help in the long run.

The third mistake is focusing on STEM.  Teachers give lip service to phonics instruction and put emphasis on creative writing without teaching the fundamentals of grammar.  Individualized learning works in home-school but not where a teacher has 25-30 kids in class.   

The fourth mistake is mandating teacher participation.  I agree here.  Teachers need the freedom to adapt curriculum to their kids.  And school boards should butt-out.  Teachers should be the leaders in setting the standard and the administrator’s should support the teachers. 

The fifth mistake is overlooking what’s truly important-teaching kids to read well.  Again, just because this thing to personalize learning is trendy doesn’t mean it’s the right thing for every locale.    

The sixth mistake is assuming this is a new thing.  Progressives have been trying to reform education since the 1920’s.  Why?  Because ignorance is bliss.    

My final thoughts. 

Karl Marx may be dead and buried in Highgate cemetery, but he’s alive and well in America.  And if we’re not careful, we’ll lose what our founding fathers fought so long and hard to establish.