12 ways to reverse the downward educational trend for your child

Wouldn't you like to know how to reverse the downward educational trend for your child, whether attending public, private, or home school?

Until the universities change what - and how - they are teaching the teachers to teach, there won’t be any improvement in the public school system.

So, how do you protect your child?

Follow the guidelines found in A Funny Boy Was Prince River -

1. Start early reading the right way at home - a wonderful way to bond
2. Keep it Simple for Success (KISS your child) with TGM
3. Use TGM picture-letter phonics cards, and NEVER sight-words
4. Teach the letter sounds, not the letter names, at first
5. Teach the lower-case letters, not the capitals, at first
6. Start before age 2, if possible; never wait for school age
7. Create small words to sound out, even before all letter sounds are mastered
8. Spend purposeful time with your child, giving him/her precious parent time and valuable reading skills simultaneously
9. Keep learning joyous and fun with no power struggles
10. Stretch your child's vocabulary with unfamiliar words; never use baby talk
11. Use all the senses when learning phonics - sound, sight, touch, taste, and smell
12. Be engaged with your child; avoid electronic methods that leave your child off by him/herself without your interaction

Use the Home Early Learning Play School (HELPS) at the end of each volume of It's Not Rocket Surgery! (Each one is different.)

See more of the reasons WHY behind these guidelines in Top Ten Myths of Reading.

        In 2003 there was an interesting article by Pete Du Pont called, Two Decades of Mediocrity, about why Johnny still can’t read. He reported, “It has been 20 years since ‘A Nation at Risk,’ the 1983 report on education in America, concluded that the ‘intellectual, moral and spiritual strength of our people’ were threatened by a failing education system.”

        “The report recommended better-educated and -qualified teachers, regularly assessing teacher and student performance, and performance pay for better teachers. It also proposed a much stronger curriculum, particularly in math and English.”

        “So, how have we done? Although ‘A Nation at Risk’ did not recommend increased spending, more resources have been poured into public education:

·         Federal spending under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act has risen from $4 billion a year to $22 billion.

·         In the most recent fiscal year the nation as a whole spent $480 billion on elementary and secondary education.

·         Since "A Nation at Risk," inflation-adjusted teacher pay is up 12 percent and per pupil spending is up 60 percent.

·         Classes are smaller -- an average of 18.6 pupils per class then, 15 now -- and there is more emphasis on English and math.

·         However, performance pay for teachers has not been implemented, and there are 70 percent fewer teachers with master's degrees.

        “But in regard to most of the recommendations of the 1983 report, there has been no progress at all. SAT scores have declined.

National Education Assessment Program test scores have risen marginally, but are still low: the 2001 NAEP test scores show only 32 percent of American fourth-graders can read proficiently or better.”

        As The Wall Street Journal summed it up: "63 percent of black fourth graders, 58 percent of Hispanics, 60 percent of children in poverty, and 47 percent of children in urban schools scored at 'below basic' competency levels, which means they can't read."  

                So what is the problem? We’re still reeling from the effects of over three decades of Project Follow Through, which will be discussed in Volume 5 of It's Not Rocket Surgery!

Until the universities change what they are teaching the teachers to teach, there won’t be any improvement.

Too many university professors prefer dogma over data and rhetoric over reason, the stuff careers are made on. They’re choosing to support theoretical teaching models that were demonstrated not to work. What sounded good on paper did not prove true with children.

               And until the state legislatures change the decrees that made the faulty curricula become law, the universities will not change. So unwitting generations of new teachers continue to buy-in to the failed ‘reform’ models. And that is why Johnny still can’t read.

                So let’s do something about it together!

Without these preventatives, the cracks in your child may be dyslexia, speech problems, resource remediation classes, being teased at school, low self-esteem, insecurity, childhood depression, low self-confidence, lack of imagination, lower IQ, slower learning capacity, and/or caught in the downward educational trend. They all may be preventable or curable. You, mom and dad, are the key. It’s not rocket surgery!

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