40% Failure in Teaching Literacy

40 per cent fail literacy test, StatsCan finds CTV.ca News Staff

The study, done in 2003, involved more than 23,000 Canadians and also looked at literacy scores in six other countries.

[. . . . ] The average literacy score for Canadians in 2003 hasn't changed significantly since 1994 when the same survey was conducted. [. . . . ]

I assume students' self-esteem is still high.

The federal government is able to impact upon the provincial jurisdiction of education in many ways subtle and otherwise. Do you want the feds to regulate daycare too and to give your child a start in the world of education through daycare? It is pure social engineering and buying of votes. Free enterprise in most cases would do a better job; at least you would be able to choose.

After reading the following article, if I see another ad touting "teacher" and "fun" in the same sentence, I shall chunder. Learning to read is not rocket science for most and there were--maybe are--some old-fashioned non-computer literate teachers who did a great job teaching reading. Of course, they weren't told they must not use phonics, and various other tried and true methods, along with omitting mention of grammar; they didn't have to be attractive, young and fun. . . just capable. How many people from two generations ago attended country school for just a few years, then left with enough reading ability to read and to teach themselves? They read; they had little spending money, chores to do and they went to adult work relatively young. They had heard the word "no" and their tender psyches survived. They did not waste time playing games on a computer nor watching TV. They learned to do other things, often by reading. Parents were involved because they were not grubbing for the next bigger home, car or whatever.

A friend has criticized me for wanting to return to a world long gone. No, not so. I love computers but I learned to read and to read for knowledge and pleasure before I learned to read from a computer screen. If we valued parenting and allowed--indeed encouraged--one parent to stay home and do the job of parenting while the other brought home the bacon, our children might actually be read to, want to learn to read and actually read. It might nip their increasingly rude behaviour and violence as well; they might not have the freedom to try drugs. Parental control beats government control every time. If only . . . . .

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