Suzie can't spell............
...........little Johnnie can't read, and, apparently, neither one can count to twenty with their shoes on.
As I've indicated in a recent post, since the beginning of the school year, I've spent evenings with my five year old grand-daughter while my daughter works second shift at a medical facility in nearby Peoria.
Cheyenne is in kindergarten and is learning to read. At last count she can read and spell 44 words and knows the difference between a period and an exclamation point. We practice her "sight words" (on flash cards that she makes out) and read for at least a little while every night. We rarely watch television. Thursday night of every week is our library night. From there we go to McDonald's and then home to watch a movie that she has selected from the library.
I have jokingly remarked, that based on what I've seen on the internet, Cheyenne's level of skill with the english language is now on a par with many college students.
I've seriously considered helping her set up an on line journal using the library computers.
As I've scanned through the morning papers in the past week, I've gleaned the following tidbits:
Last year, the federal government spent $35 billion to assist higher education.
(and on the same page)
The pentagon is asking for $100 billion more to finance its current war-making efforts......bringing the total since the invasion of Afghanistan (remember that one?) to nearly half a trillion dollars.
These items were the seminal inspirations for this post....having given rise to the immediate thought: "Well, gee golly, I feel much safer now."
......But what really clinched it was an article found in Friday's paper,under the headline; "Study shows 11 million adults are illiterate" (the full text of which may be read here.)
What struck me most was paragraph five which reads:
"So even as more people get a formal education, the literacy rate is not rising. Federal officials say this trend is puzzling and worthy of research."
Hey............the feds are on it.......not a problem.
Thus endeth the entry...........
As I've indicated in a recent post, since the beginning of the school year, I've spent evenings with my five year old grand-daughter while my daughter works second shift at a medical facility in nearby Peoria.
Cheyenne is in kindergarten and is learning to read. At last count she can read and spell 44 words and knows the difference between a period and an exclamation point. We practice her "sight words" (on flash cards that she makes out) and read for at least a little while every night. We rarely watch television. Thursday night of every week is our library night. From there we go to McDonald's and then home to watch a movie that she has selected from the library.
I have jokingly remarked, that based on what I've seen on the internet, Cheyenne's level of skill with the english language is now on a par with many college students.
I've seriously considered helping her set up an on line journal using the library computers.
As I've scanned through the morning papers in the past week, I've gleaned the following tidbits:
Last year, the federal government spent $35 billion to assist higher education.
(and on the same page)
The pentagon is asking for $100 billion more to finance its current war-making efforts......bringing the total since the invasion of Afghanistan (remember that one?) to nearly half a trillion dollars.
These items were the seminal inspirations for this post....having given rise to the immediate thought: "Well, gee golly, I feel much safer now."
......But what really clinched it was an article found in Friday's paper,under the headline; "Study shows 11 million adults are illiterate" (the full text of which may be read here.)
What struck me most was paragraph five which reads:
"So even as more people get a formal education, the literacy rate is not rising. Federal officials say this trend is puzzling and worthy of research."
Hey............the feds are on it.......not a problem.
Thus endeth the entry...........
posted by captn | 12/19/2005 11:59:00 AM
2 Comments:
be sure to send me the link to cheyenne's when it's up please :-)
Oh, thank God the government is taking care of it. That just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
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