Nearly Half Of Detroit's Adults Are Functionally Illiterate, Report Finds

Teach Them To Read?!

Raison d'etre is French for "reason for being," and students who can’t read feel

they have no reason for being in school. Students will start thinking school is a

prison and will behave and act institutio­nalized towards teachers, peers and

academics. Students get more cynical when the gold stars lose their luster,

and teachers' mendacity about their performanc­e start showing through the

insight of their poor skills and inability to perform academic tasks. It’s a small

death suffered every day by these students, as they see their dreams crashed

on the rocks of reality. We ask students to come to school daily and give

100% to what they believe is an intolerabl­e humiliatio­n, and we get angry

when they don’t smile and take school more seriously. We scratch our heads,

wondering what we can do when half of our kids drop out of school. If

students can’t read, every thing else is moot. My raison d’erte is to never

let a student pass through my class without teaching them to read period.

Twenty days may not do the job; you may need forty or eighty to get the job

done. We can use the One Star Fish analogy, but that sacrifices too many

students to a devastatin­g future. Students are not going to change unless we

devise an effective way to change their outlook.

Sean Taylor M.Ed

http://rea­ding-sage.­blogspot.c­om
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