by Norman Hall, contributor
As you know, there is one area of education that has been negated for many years. I could never understand it, but maybe there aren’t teachers willing to teach the topic: READING. As you know, if you can read, there is no stopping you. Reading is the basic foundation for any subject; science, math and in technical education. You listen to people today and they can’t read correctly.
The area of education I would change is to have students start in a reading program the first half of kindergarten and through to the 3rd grade. Sixty percent of the students’ time would be on reading. This is the formative year for any child. I’m not a reading teacher, I was in vocational education and I could see students struggle in reading instructions. As you know, reading can be fun as it can take you away to many places and develop many new projects.
The problem with educational systems is they forgot the three “Rs” – reading, writing and arithmetic. Even in our technology-based society, students must be skilled in the three Rs. You can’t get away from the great value and importance. There could be less learning disability “if” students were taught to read. I have seen students standing up in class having to read a paragraph; many times the student would stumble on a word. But, the teacher did not assist the student in taking the word apart or sounding it out. This is just one of the barriers that we encounter. Achieving excellent reading proficiency will help when the student is employed and performing his/her daily profession. “Knowledge is isolated away in reading material. There is an increasing need to be able to understand technical information. The information may possibly be for work, a prescription, legal papers or pleasure. What you read is accumulated away in your memory for later reference. You will, in formal learning situations, be required to read and critically think about a lot of information from different sources. It is important therefore, that you not only learn to read critically but also efficiently.” SkillsYouNeed.com
An excellent way to identify and encourage effective reading habits is to locate a reading teacher who is a specialist. Note: make sure the person has the right credentials. “Did you know that learning to read is a challenge for almost 40 percent of kids? The good news is that with early help, most reading problems can be prevented. The bad news is that nearly half of all parents who notice their child having trouble wait a year or more before getting help. Unfortunately, the older a child is, the more difficult it is to teach him or her to read. If a child can’t read well by the end of third grade, odds are that he or she will never catch up. And the effects of falling behind and feeling like a failure can be devastating.” Read Rockets, June Behrmann
In addition to teaching and supporting effective reading habits to help people succeed throughout their lives, understanding the importance of proper nutrition as a critical component for life-long learning is a growing area of focus. Sam Kass, former Whitehouse Chef said: “there are many questions. What do we think the connection is between a child’s growing mind and their growing body? What can we expect our kids to learn if their diets are full of sugar and empty of nutrients? What can they possibly learn if their bodies are literally going hungry? And with all the resources that we are pouring into schools, we should stop and ask ourselves: Are we really setting our kids up for success?
Read to escape reality and take in some great adventures. Reading can take you where you haven’t been or where you visited. I read a book: Abducting A General: a WWII adventure in Crete. Within the text, the author mentions parts of the city of Crete. A number of years ago, I visited Heraklion, Crete and saw locations that were mentioned in the book. It made traveling that much more interesting. This same thing can happen with many types of books. When are building a project, you can get instructions, step-by-step, how to build it. When the project is finished, you may be complemented on the first class results. Mark Twain said: “The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”
Michael Chandler of the Washington Post reported, “Nearly two-thirds of students in Virginia and Maryland do not read proficiently by the time they finish third grade.” Literacy is having an impact on our economy. Employees can’t compete with the foreign market by rote performance. Skills are needed today to be competitive with the rest of the world. As we know, China has many low paying jobs because the worker can only perform one operation. Many are not able to perform additional functions because they can’t read.
Employability skills, also known as key competencies, including reading skills, are those basic skills necessary for getting, keeping, and doing well on a job. These are the skills, attitudes and actions that enable workers to get along with their fellow workers and supervisors and to make sound, critical decisions. “Innovation is one of the most fundamental processes underpinning economic growth, the driver of growth in output per unit of labor and capital invested, and an important basis for developing solutions to economic and social challenges”. SME Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 2010.
Fifty years ago, both South Korea and Finland had terrible education systems. Finland was at risk of becoming the economic stepchild of Europe. South Korea was ravaged by civil war. Yet over the past half century, both South Korea and Finland have turned their schools around — and now both countries are hailed internationally for their extremely high educational outcomes. What can other countries learn from these two successful, but diametrically opposed, educational models?
