[senco-forum] Re Standards Site

I don't think it is altogether fair to blame teachers or parents for the present state of illiteracy.  After all, in most cases they have been doing what they have (in the case of teachers)been trained to do, or, (in the case of parents) been advised to do.  The academics who train teachers, who advise the Dfes & write the Dfes' programmes have, in the main, been perpetrating methods (if 'method' you can call it, as it seems to be more a series of unsubstantiated assertions  and pious hopes which have been soundly refuted by scientific research over the past 30 years) which have failed not only disadvantaged & 'low ability' , but also a substantial number of 'bright' children over the past two decades or more.  

It might be said that it is up to teachers to keep abreast with research, but teachers are very busy people and have had enormous pressure on them to 'conform' to the 'official' methods.  But it is to their credit that pressure for change has come mostly from teachers and practitioners of methods which have demonstrably excellent results and that many of the the most effective 'programmes' have been developed by them.

Maggie

Eddie Carron <eddiecarron at btconnect.com> wrote: But the 'social climate' 'media intrusion' etc is not exclusive to the UK. only the high level of illiteracy is. They have it in Scandanavia etc etc etc where literacy standards are significantly higher. Of course, teachers are to blame - who else?  We are the ones who teach, or fail to teach the children to read. We cannot blame the children or their parents. If we choose to use teaching methods which we know in advance are going to fail one child in five, then we are clearly and unequivocally to blame.  I'll bet if payment by results was to be introduced, the illiteracy problem would be resolved almost instantly. Those who are paid to teach children to read get paid whether or not they are successful - therein lies part of the problem.

If a child has a specific learning difficulty, his/her failure to acquire reading skills is, to some extent at least, understandable. But the majoriity of those who we fail to teach to read, have no specific learning difficulties. As a group, they do tend to reside at the lower end of the intellectual spectrum but any child with an IQ of 85+ can be taught to read, assuming there are no other extraneous factors.  A 97% literacy rate is what is achieved in Scandanavia, some other European countries and of course many Asian countries - are we really down to the level of saying its not the teachers fault - it just that 20% of  UK children do not learn to read by the methods we as teachers choose to use to teach them - but you musn't blame us! I  s it really nobodies fault - just a fact of life?

Eddie C.

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