I want to thank Michael Atherton for his excellent background post on the phonics wars. I haven't been involved but maybe I should be. I realize that through the intervention of my mother (now suffering from Alzheimer's), I was lucky enough to have a life.
Somehow or other I wasn't taught or didn't learn phonics in elementary school. I think they were doing "whole word," or sight reading at that time. I don't know. Anyway, I remember in about 4th grade, sitting at a desk at home, trying to write a composition. The word I needed was "did." Yes, "DID." I didn't know how to spell it, but I had a child's dictionary. I kept looking for the word--for ten or twenty minutes! BUT I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT LETTER IT BEGAN WITH!!! I couldn't find it and finally had to go ask my parents for help. I suppose this affected my education and my perceived ability, at least till I learned to compensate. But in 8th grade they were tracking me to "trade school" based on my performance. (I won't say if they were wrong or right--but when I became a graduate student research assistant in the Space Physics Lab at UM-Madison I had to learn to use a milling machine and a metal lathe. That didn't go well--I almost took off a finger in a lathe accident. (My mother came out to be with me for the operation to reconnect the tendon.) So I was lucky my parents fought to get me on the college track and away from dangerous machines.) Anyway, during my 9th grade year my parents hired a tutor to teach me phonics from the ground up. We started with first grade readers, and I learned the sounds and did the drills--Cat, Bat, Hat. We continued through them for months, once a week I think. I didn't like it, of course. But I did what my parents wanted. They knew best. (Aren't those are some antiquated concepts!) Mike's post reminded me of all this, and made me realize that maybe my parent's insistence that I learn phonics in 9th grade saved my life. Makes me really appreciate them and all they have done for me. BTW, I started to succeed academically starting in High School (10-12). I never got great at spelling, and keep a dictionary at my right hand. Though often I get lazy and call for help from my wife who took Latin at Cathedral High School in Superior, WI, and who loves word origins and the etymological (I just looked it up) dictionary I bought her one year as a Hanukah/Christmas present. Phonics drills. Fun? No, at least not prior to computers. Necessary? In my case, You Bet! Thanks Mom, and Mrs. Markel (my tutor). Alan Shilepsky Downtown _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
