Mogga  wrote:

> On Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:59:01 +0000 (GMT), Anonymous
>  wrote:
> 
> 
> >> I think he is missing the point a bit.  The teachers only have a certain 
> >> amount of time to devote to reading.  I have noticed in our area, and in the 
> >> schools my children have attended in particular, that reading ability is as 
> >> a general rule directly attributable to the child's experience at home.  If 
> >> the parents are reading to the child regularly, providing a stimulating 
> >> environment and encouraging their child in their phonics and reading, then 
> >> the child will learn to read much more quickly.  At the end of the day, 
> >> children spend much more time at home than at school.
> >
> >Absolutely right. But our society thinks all people have a "right" to
> >have and bring up children, regardless of their own literacy or
> >qualifications.
> 
> So do you believe in licencing having children? Compulsory
> sterilisation for all until proved fit to be a parent?

Parents who don't encourage their kids to read
should bear the blame for the problem.  Not the
teachers who have to try to undo the damage that 
bad parents have done.

Anonymous wrote:
> Mogga  wrote:
> 
> 
>>On Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:59:01 +0000 (GMT), Anonymous
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>>I think he is missing the point a bit.  The teachers only have a certain 
>>>>amount of time to devote to reading.  I have noticed in our area, and in the 
>>>>schools my children have attended in particular, that reading ability is as 
>>>>a general rule directly attributable to the child's experience at home.  If 
>>>>the parents are reading to the child regularly, providing a stimulating 
>>>>environment and encouraging their child in their phonics and reading, then 
>>>>the child will learn to read much more quickly.  At the end of the day, 
>>>>children spend much more time at home than at school.
>>>
>>>Absolutely right. But our society thinks all people have a "right" to
>>>have and bring up children, regardless of their own literacy or
>>>qualifications.
>>
>>So do you believe in licencing having children? Compulsory
>>sterilisation for all until proved fit to be a parent?
> 
> 
> Parents who don't encourage their kids to read
> should bear the blame for the problem.  Not the
> teachers who have to try to undo the damage that 
> bad parents have done.
> 
What problem?  I know a family where the father instructed the teachers 
not to teach his son to read at age 5.  He later visited the school and 
heard his son reading - from another child's book, upside down; the 
teachers apologised saying that short of excluding the boy from the 
classroom there was little they could do.  The boy is now 25+ and reads 
for pleasure in several languages.