Education

Last edited Wed Mar 2, 2022, 01:47 PM - Edit history (1)

My sister and I were read to a lot by our parents, and we would try to follow along with the text, ask "what's that word ?" and all that. We had alphabet blocks, chalkboards, and magnetic, plastic letters for toys. I don't remember ever having to work to learn to read; it was all play (though it took some dedicated parenting). Oh, we also had a children's song (on a 45rpm) about the alphabet that we played over and over; I can recite the alphabet forwards as fast as I can enunciate speech, and backwards almost as fast. I think the most important thing is for children to have as much opportunity to learn as possible, not so much to force them into lessons.

I probably picked up reading sooner than usual because I was so often around when my older sister was being taught (or just read to), and when she got older she liked to "play" teaching me, which turned out to be actual teaching! I ended up skipping second grade altogether, after having spent first grade at a private school where I apparently read faster than any of the other students.

If you learn to read earlier, you become an independent thinker earlier, I believe -- at least you start having vicarious experiences through books earlier, which gives you more to think about than you could ever acquire through personal experience. I still remember most of the Dr. Seuss books and comic books I read way back then. By curious coincidence, I have been thinking about this a lot lately. There are certain stories, or even pictures from certain stories, that have stuck in my memory for years and years, and I have often wondered if I could find those comics again. Recently, I found some of the comics I read way back then have been scanned in their entirety and posted to the Internet, and I quickly located three of the stories in that category -- all date from 1964. I would have turned 4 in March of '64, and I can distinctly my sister buying one of those comics in a store at "The Mall" and I think I bought another at the little grocery within walking distance of our house. I firmly believe that the earlier you learn to read, the better off you are. You end up reading faster, more easily, and with greater comprehension. It is perhaps worth considering that children who are not exposed to spoken language at all before the age of four (IIRC) are thereafter never properly able to acquire it. Our language processing skills develop early, and processing written language is a further skill on top of spoken language (for most people). Unlike spoken language, written language is quite arguably not natural to humans, and reading is thus an unnatural skill which must be properly nourished to flourish. Reading is a skill, and, like other skills, must be taught, vigorously practiced, maintained and improved by conscious effort. I feel my reading skills have shaped my life more strongly than almost anything else, and feel genuine pity for people who never have the opportunity to learn the way I did. I certainly can't imagine not teaching a child to read before age seven -- that almost strikes me as censorship, or even deliberate disabling! Give your child the chance to learn to read as play, and you can be certain s/he won't wait that long. (/IMHO)