Here we go again and again and again!

I hesitate to write a new post because I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but I'm afraid it can't be helped. As long as the education system continues to use the same methods to teach reading I will continue to sing the same song. Now I know you're asking yourself what set her off this time? It is unfortunately, the same thing that has been setting me off for the last 16 years.



I have just started with a new student who is 16 years old, and attends grade 11 at a local private school. Now one would think that the education would be better in a private school, if for no other reason than the parents are paying for it, but unfortunately, one would be wrong in that assumption. The results of his "Word Attack Skills Test" clearly indicated that he had absolutely no knowledge of how words are constructed. After the test I showed him the first "Word Pattern" card that I use to teach all my students. The pattern was _ o _ which demonstrates how an "o" would sound when placed between two consonants. When I asked him what the "o" would say in that postion he couldn't tell me and he had no idea how to figure it out.

Is there any wonder why a country like Canada, where we are about a spoiled as people can be, has an iliiteracy rate of 45%? That means that almost half of this country cannot read well enough to function day to day. Please tell me how anyone can justify that! DO NOT TRY TO TELL ME THAT MOST OF THAT FIGURE REPRESENTS ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE students because that is not what my 16 years of experience tells me. That 45% represents every day people who have attended school and worked as hard as they could, and yet they still cannot read or write successfully. Did you know that when a student enters the first year of university he/she has to write an english placement exam because the professors cannot be sure that the student will be able to read or write at the required level? These are young men and women who were born here and educated here.

Do you have any idea what it is like to be a teenager (which is tough enough ) and to be told that your reading level is below grade? Thankfully this is a very bright young man who has already recognized that he is struggling and just wants to find a solution to his problem. When I spoke with his mother she told me that he was excited and anxious to get started. He's got a great attitude which is going to allow him to progress quickly.

This young man is also dealing with idiocy that was foisted upon him when he was young. At the age of 5 it was determined that he had a weak eye and the doctors had him wear a patch over his strong eye so it would force his weak eye to work harder. The problem with the prescription was they patched his dominant eye. To explain further; as you know we are all born either right- handed or left- handed, but what you may not know is we also have a dominant eye which is usually the same side as the hand. This is because the larger side of our brain determines our dominance. In his case because his dominant eye (right) was patched his dominance was switched and his left eye became the dominant one.

There are many complications which can arise when someone's dominance has been switched. Having a dominant side helps us to define which is right and which is left, if the dominance is changed it can be difficult to tell left from right. It can also create problems in reading left to right across the page. When dominance is switched the brain tends to react by deciding that direction is not important so left to right or right to left is all the same. These can be the kids who flip "was" and "saw" "b" and "d" etc. The brain sees the difference in the letters, it just doesn't recognize the importance of the direction. These are also the kids who are told they have a "learning disability" and are treated as if there is something dreadfully wrong with them. The system needs to be able to recognize the difference between intelligence and programming (or in this case mis-programming). Remember reading is all about perception. If the perception is changed the abiltiy to read is changed, but the intelligence doesn't change.

So what more can I say! I'm also anxious to get started teaching my new student. I'm anxious for him to discover how wonderful the english language is and how easy it is to read when he is taught in the manner his brain wants to process information. I'm anxious to help him succeed in his ability to read and write. I'm anxious for him to learn the history of the english language and how the spelling of a word does make sense if you know the origin of the word. I'm anxious for a whole new world to open up for him and I'm grateful that I can be a part of that process of discovery.