Thread: ILLITERACY IN US: 7,000 HIGH SCHOOL KIDS DROP OUT EVERY

ILLITERACY IN AMERICA: 7,000 HIGH SCHOOL KIDS DROP OUT EVERY DAY

By Frosty Wooldridge
September 6, 2010
NewsWithViews.com

John Wayne said, “Life is tough; it’s tougher if you’re stupid!â€

I still think the no. 1 reason is the liberalization of our school districts. We moved from right and wrong answers to the "I'm ok, your ok" philosophy. Has anybody really ever met a criminal with low self esteem? Most think they are above the law and simply entitled to take what they want. They are so self centered that nobody else matters. The schools have taught most of them this.

What the schools are not teaching is phonics. They are obsessed with this new experimental way of teaching to read called "sight words" or "whole words". This is where they show a picture with the word under it and kids associate that grouping of letters with the word. Here is the problem with this method:
[quote]Whole Word, it is claimed, can teach children to read 500 sight-words in first grade.

Even if this pace can be achieved, these students know only 6000 words by the end of high school, and are only semi-literate.

Judged by its own claims, Whole Word doesn’t work. In fact, few students can memorize even 300 words per year. This difficulty is confirmed all over the Internet by lists of Sight Words that have THIRD GRADE students learning simple one-syllable words such as: bring, clean, cut, done, draw, drink, eight, fall, far, full, got, grow, hold, hot, hurt, if, keep.

Imagine nine-year-olds who can’t read such words. Their education is at a standstill. All school books must be dumbed down.

Millions of people peak at 1,000-2,000 sight-words, a level of progress called “functionally illiterate.â€

Yes, the ridiculing of old fashioned repetitive sing song rhyme say after me learning meant that alot of kids just don't get it. . . . ever. Plus the needs of the kids in school comes dead last. The whole school system is poiiticized and full of land mines for the career teacher. Just like the poison destroying everything else in the nation - a good teacher is not good enough. A good teacher will most likely find themselves battling a political minefield created by those who are jealous that they are good - just like on every other job these days. Then of course, if you really piss someone off, the allegations of child porn or some other atrocity can be levied and corresponding evidence placed on your computer.

I have a male teen who is still in school despite ALL of his friends throughout childhood have dropped out. SMART kids cannot take the way they are treated at school. The other day a smarmy political hack picked on my son at school. He walked off campus. Several other students walked off with him in protest (yes I am sure it was a good excuse to party too but they used the situation with my son as reason to leave as they were offended.) So I was asked to pick up my son and bring him back to school. In the parking lot of the school I met parents and other students who made a point of coming up to me and stating to me that my son is ALWAYS polite and well mannered regardless of the situation. Wherever we go people scream his street name. My husband has caught youth deciding not to commit crime on him because they know our son. He is frighteningly popular. So I figure let the fools keep picking on him. I can get enough character references to have him set up for life if we can find the right attorney. Plus alot of us parents want to understand why so many kids have dropped out anyway. Just keep pushing us - they can go down - we can get an answer - too many of us are hopping mad at the way our kids live in a prison environment every day. Sadly, this is what most of our workplaces have become so in a way it IS preparation for life but the kids are right to rebel against it and I support them in that.

Yes cayla, I see a plot.