To true. My cousin is a former principal and now Highschool Chemistry teacher and he's constantly dumbfounded how he has to teach 17 and 18 year olds basic english and grammar just so they can answer his chemistry class questions.
As for Phonics, wayyyyy back when, I was held back in 1st grade because I didn't know phonics, even though I knew how to read. In fact I was reading Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson. It baffled my parents. Meanwhile I softpeddled through phonics while moving onto the works of H.G. Wells. What a different mindset back in the 1960s.
If you were reading Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson in first grade, you were already way beyond phonics or anything else the school could provide.
Sue, this is powerful stuff. I grieve for the safe and nurturing place school was for me. Remember the school carnival, learning to sing in parts, even reading music? Real food in the cafeteria, doled out by volunteer moms (not my mom; unlike the others, she was a single mother and had to work). We had air raid drills, but nothing as scary as active shooter training.
We were lucky to have childhoods that weren't fraught by the dangers schools experience today. As I wrote this essay, I had to remember my classroom had a fairly homogenous population. Not the variety of languages or the ethnic/religious cultures the make up so many urban schools now. I heard that the LA school district has to accommodate 19 different languages in their classrooms. But the way things are taught also stymies individual learning and teachers' creativity to deal with those learning problems. Schools were so simple back in the 1950s. One principal, one secretary, and a nurse who was always there. Gosh, just how did they manage? The schools now are so top-heavy with fiefdoms and nepotism, it's become dysfunctional.
A wonderful post, Sue - my favourite read so far today. 😊
Thank you, Rebecca. I appreciate that. It was nice to remember back to her part in my life.
To true. My cousin is a former principal and now Highschool Chemistry teacher and he's constantly dumbfounded how he has to teach 17 and 18 year olds basic english and grammar just so they can answer his chemistry class questions.
As for Phonics, wayyyyy back when, I was held back in 1st grade because I didn't know phonics, even though I knew how to read. In fact I was reading Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson. It baffled my parents. Meanwhile I softpeddled through phonics while moving onto the works of H.G. Wells. What a different mindset back in the 1960s.
If you were reading Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson in first grade, you were already way beyond phonics or anything else the school could provide.
Sue, this is powerful stuff. I grieve for the safe and nurturing place school was for me. Remember the school carnival, learning to sing in parts, even reading music? Real food in the cafeteria, doled out by volunteer moms (not my mom; unlike the others, she was a single mother and had to work). We had air raid drills, but nothing as scary as active shooter training.
We were lucky to have childhoods that weren't fraught by the dangers schools experience today. As I wrote this essay, I had to remember my classroom had a fairly homogenous population. Not the variety of languages or the ethnic/religious cultures the make up so many urban schools now. I heard that the LA school district has to accommodate 19 different languages in their classrooms. But the way things are taught also stymies individual learning and teachers' creativity to deal with those learning problems. Schools were so simple back in the 1950s. One principal, one secretary, and a nurse who was always there. Gosh, just how did they manage? The schools now are so top-heavy with fiefdoms and nepotism, it's become dysfunctional.
Amen!