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Blair bribes parents and children into higher education
It would seem that the media mania over the cost of an education is finally paying off, with the UK government taking increasingly strong measures to maintain the current level of school leavers moving into higher education. According to the Times...
Juggling Your Way Into Balance
Let's take a brief look at the journey of American women through the last 100 years. Throughout this period, we have proved ourselves to be resilient and flexible, persistent and determined, dedicated, diverse, courageous, and perennially...
Parents and Children Working Together
Parents and Children Working Together When parents help their children learn to read, they help open the door to a new world. As a parent, you can begin an endless learning chain: You read to your children, they develop a love of stories and poems,...
Public Schools Are Un-American
Compulsory-attendance laws force parents to send their children to public schools. These laws presume that the politicians we vote into office, our agents, have the right to take away parents’ liberty and inalienable rights. Compulsory education...
Remember The "Generation Gap"?
The techniques of managing relationships between parents and their children is as old as.. well, parents having children. It's not an easy job, either for the parent or the child. But, the key to any relationship inside or outside the family is...
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Schreiber, Johansson Build A 'Bridge' To A Classic
Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson are starring in a widely praised revival of Arthur Miller's <em>A View From The Bridge</em>. They tell reporter Jeff Lunden that as in all great tragedies, this one's clashes and catastrophes have something of the inevitable about them.
Stargazing At The Opera
The Hayden Planetarium in New York takes opera to the moon with a new production of <em>Il Mondo Della Luna.</em> Diane Paulus and Philip Bussmann talk about merging cosmos footage with music, how science can enhance the arts and the future of technology and theater.
Obama 'The Musical' Opens In Germany
A new theater production <em>Hope: The Obama Musical Story</em> opened this week in Frankfurt, Germany. It tells the story, in song and dance, of America's first black president. It is likely to be a big success in a country where President Obama is still immensely popular.
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Invented Spelling --- Another Alice-In-Wonderland Public-School Theory
As part of the whole-language (or "balanced") reading-instruction philosophy, many public schools now teach what they call “invented” or “creative” spelling. Under this theory of spelling, teachers believe that forcing a child to spell a word correctly thwarts the child's "creativity." So in classrooms across America, many public-school teachers now encourage children to spell words any way they like.
Also, many school officials now believe it is not important to teach correct spelling because, so the theory goes, a child will “eventually” learn to spell correctly. Unfortunately, millions of children who start out as poor spellers, stay that way. How, in our Alice-in-Wonderland public-school classrooms, will a child learn to spell correctly if public schools think that correct spelling is meaningless?
Charles J. Sykes, author of "Dumbing Down Our Kids," provides the following real-life examples of invented spelling in our public schools:
“Joan W. and Beverly J. [last names omitted for privacy] are not experts. They just didn’t understand why their children weren’t learning to write, spell, or read very well. They didn’t understand why their children kept coming home with sloppy papers filled with spelling mistakes and bad grammar and why teachers never corrected them or demanded better work. Mrs. W. couldn’t fathom why her child’s teacher would write a “Wow!” and award a check-plus (for above average work) to a paper that read:
“I’m goin to has majik skates. Im goin to go to disenalen. Im goin to bin my mom and dad and brusr and sisd. We r go to se mickey mouse.”
On another assignment where the children were told to write about why, where, and how they would run away from home without their parents knowing about it, here’s what one child wrote: “I would
Stroke Victims Think, Robotic Arm Acts
Reporting in <em>Nature,</em> researchers write that two individuals, both paralyzed by stroke, made reach-and-grasp movements using a thought-controlled robotic arm. One participant was even able to a sip a drink by herself. Neuroengineer Dr. Leigh Hochberg discusses the paper and the ongoing trial.
10 Ways to Make Toilet Training Fun and Exciting
Blue & Yellow Make Green - Put a few drops of blue food coloring in the toilet and show your child that the color turns green when he or she pees in the potty!
Toilet Targets - Purchase or make toilet targets to teach your child to aim.
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run awar because by mom and Dad don’t love me. I would run away with my brother to the musan in mlewsky. We will use are packpacks and put all are close in it. We will take a lot of mony with us so we can go on the bus to the musam. We will stay there for a tlong timne so my mom and dad know they did not love us.”
Not only is this child’s spelling atrocious and the teacher’s “Wow” grade damaging to the child, but the lesson itself is insidious. Should teachers be giving writing assignments to children about how and why they should run away from home?
Spelling affects people’s lives. A person who doesn’t spell words correctly can’t communicate effectively with employees, supervisors, customers, patients, clients, business associates, contractors, or parents. He or she can’t be sure of the exact meaning of misspelled words in a contract, mortgage, medical consent form, or other crucial documents or instructions.
Invented spelling also makes a bad impression on employers and college admissions officers. Yet many public schools no longer think spelling is important enough to spend time on during the school day.
Parents, invented spelling is yet another reason why you should seriously consider taking your children out of public school and looking for better education alternatives elsewhere. The Resources section in "Public Schools, Public Menace" describes many low-cost, quality education alternatives you can take advantage of right now.
Article Copyrighted © 2005 by Joel Turtel.
About the Author
Joel Turtel is the author of “Public Schools, Public Menace: How Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children." Website: http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com, Email: lbooksusa@aol.com, Phone: 718-447-7348.
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