Sixteen pupils at one private school? He does not mention that he has been a trustee of this school since 1984 and that he sent his son there. More objectivity needed!
My daughter was an early reader like the son of the article's author. Like the author, I hadn't realized my child was reading until she asked a question about the message on a sign, the content of which she couldn't have guessed. I picked up a magazine and she read several paragraphs absolutely fluently. She was just short of her third birthday and had no formal reading instruction whatsoever. By contrast, her friend, who didn't initially see the point in reading, waited until he was 12 before he (again, apparently autonomously) began to read. In both cases, they now devour fiction and non-fiction and both are perfectly able to use the written word to help them learn other things. The friend's late start has been no problem to him as he didn't go to school. He's now a far more able and engaged reader than most children who've suffered through endless literacy hours. My daughter's early start WAS an issue because, while she was at school, it marked her out quite unjustifiably as a swot. It hasn't stopped her reading because she loves it! Obviously, these are individual examples and clearly I have a vested interest in my own child (so anyone can take a pot at my objectivity), but I've personally seen at least these 2 examples of reading developing naturally (in a literate environment) and without tortuous drilling of alphabet and phonemes.
3 comments:
Sixteen pupils at one private school? He does not mention that he has been a trustee of this school since 1984 and that he sent his son there. More objectivity needed!
Conversely it could be that he has actually seen the phenomena he describes and actually knows what he is talking about.
My daughter was an early reader like the son of the article's author. Like the author, I hadn't realized my child was reading until she asked a question about the message on a sign, the content of which she couldn't have guessed. I picked up a magazine and she read several paragraphs absolutely fluently. She was just short of her third birthday and had no formal reading instruction whatsoever. By contrast, her friend, who didn't initially see the point in reading, waited until he was 12 before he (again, apparently autonomously) began to read. In both cases, they now devour fiction and non-fiction and both are perfectly able to use the written word to help them learn other things. The friend's late start has been no problem to him as he didn't go to school. He's now a far more able and engaged reader than most children who've suffered through endless literacy hours. My daughter's early start WAS an issue because, while she was at school, it marked her out quite unjustifiably as a swot. It hasn't stopped her reading because she loves it! Obviously, these are individual examples and clearly I have a vested interest in my own child (so anyone can take a pot at my objectivity), but I've personally seen at least these 2 examples of reading developing naturally (in a literate environment) and without tortuous drilling of alphabet and phonemes.
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