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To home educate or send them back (Opinion piece)
Many parents have been fretting over whether to send their children to school in-person or to have them continue home-based online learning offered by the schools. For some parents it’s a matter of the coronavirus and having somebody that is immune-deficient at home. For other parents it is a matter of the parents need to work and they work in person and they need somewhere to send their child so that their child is not home alone. These are two situations where the parents do not have as much a choice. There are other situations where the parent does have a choice and it is to these parents that I am writing this essay. What are some of the issues that these parents are facing? One of the issues is socializing with other students of their age. A second is the quality of person-to-person education versus distance-education. Thirdly, is the feeling of inadequacy on the part of the parent. And finally, it is the level of patience of the parent when dealing with educational matters. Socializing with other students of their age. Having peers around you that are going through the same things as you are seems very important to…
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Advice to Parents on their Children’s Media
For several years now I have carried around a little pocketbook called “One Hundred and One Famous Poems with a Prose Supplement.” This book has prompted many a conversation as I read a poem or a short prose selection from the book. The Covid-19 scenario has put a major damper in the number of opportunities for me to bring out this book, as I along with many others have curtailed our social lives. Being that as it may, I decided to share the following from the book: In choosing books for children these rules, recently laid down by an author of books for boys, are worth the consideration of parents: “Read your children’s books yourself. Or better still, get your boy or girl to read them aloud to you. Ask yourself during the reading: Does this book lay stress on villainy, deception, or treachery? Are all the incidents wholesome, probable, and true to life? Does it show young people contemptuous toward their elders and successfully opposing them? Do the young characters in the book show respect for teachers and others in authority? Are these characters the kind of young people you wish your children to associate with? Does the book…
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Homeschooling in 2020
Parents have been “homeschooling” their children for the past five weeks, and it seems like they will continue to do so till the end of the school year. How many of these parents will decide to continue homeschooling next year.
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ADD and ADHD Children Benefit From Learning to Read Early
Many children with ADD/ADHD have language development skills that are weak. They also find it more difficult to communicate effectively to others what they want and become more easily frustrated because of that. When frustration sets in, they start daydreaming or acting out. It is difficult to recognize AD(H)D in infants. The reason for its development at all is uncertain. There are many factors suspected in playing a role in the disorder. Until we rule out the erroneous reasons, we cannot know how to prevent it. The best we can do at this point is ameliorate it. One of the ways of doing so is by increasing the child’s ability to communicate. Language learning is best done when a child is younger than 4 years of age. After 4 years of age, the myelin (material that insulates neurons) has finished much of its growth, making it more difficult to learn languages. The longer it takes to get a child started into reading, the harder it is for the child to learn to read. This is a major point of early learning centers (daycare/preschool). Any good daycare will not just allow the children to play with toys, but will have helpers…
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To Write, or Not To Write of Teaching (“To Be, or Not To Be” rewritten)
To write of teaching or not to write on’t? That is the question. Whether ‘tis better for the mind to suffer the trials and tribulations of teaching malpractice, or to put the pen to paper to oppose it, and by opposing, end it. To train, to teach once more; and by teaching, to end the heartache and the thousands of drop outs that school is heir to? ‘Tis a higher outcome devoutly to be wished. To train, to teach, and in teaching perhaps they learn; Aye there’s the rub, for in that classroom toil, what dreams are born. When they have graduated school, what they shall achieve will give us pause. To teach respectability that lasts a lifetime long; To teach them to stand tall to the sneers and scorns of lesser minds, to end oppression’s wrongs, to be proud even though ridiculed. To bear the pains of lost contests, to rebuff the bully, no matter his size. To teach him to think on his own, so that when it’s quiet, his mind will higher rise. Who would packages bear, grunt and sweat, a day laborers life, never knowing from whence the next meal, and to dread the not knowing. …
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Vocabulary sizes then and now
If in the 1800’s ordinary people had a vocabulary of only 3000 words, and the illiterate had only 500 words from which to choose for use in their limited vocabulary, it’s no wonder that they had difficulty understanding what the well-educated had to say with a vocabulary of 5000+ words. How many words do you use on a daily or even annual basis? That is to say, how many unique words, not how many times do you use the words a, an, the, and other such words. From “How do I Pronounce?” 1885 by Phyfe: 118,000 words were in the dictionary in the 1880’s. 30,000 words were in practical use. 15,000 words appear in Shakespeare’s works. Cultivated persons in general use only 5,000 words. Ordinary people use 3,000 and the lower end of the illiterate population have the use of only 500 words. According to Adolphs & Schmitt (2003), 2000 words can provide an understanding of 95% of conversations. The typical conversation requires only 90% to 95% of the words to be understood in order to understand the conversation as a whole. (van Zeeland and Schmitt 2011) How many more words have been added to dictionaries since the 1880’s? The…
