Re: OT More pens (was Re: Phoneme winnowing continues)

From: "Robert B Wilson" <han_solo55@...>
Subject: Re: OT More pens (was Re: Phoneme winnowing continues)


> On Mon, 9 Jun 2003 20:04:18 -0700 Stone Gordonssen
> <stonegordonssen@...> writes:
> > I really don't buy this as other than a very vapid excuse for why
> > Johhny and
> > Mary graduate from highschool but still can't read. Have been born
> > and
> > reared in the USA, I KNOW it can be better, even under *local*
> > control.
>
> well, at the school i went to, it'd be extremely difficult for anyone to
> get past kindergarten without being able to read...  too bad the rest of
> the country can't figure out that schools should be teaching stuff that
> really matters instead of trying to get kids to believe in evolution... i
> thought the supreme court did the whole judicial legislation thingy and
> made it illegal to promote any religion (or even pray or have religious
> writings in your possession) in a public school...
I find it hard to believe that anyone could graduate high school in the US
and not know how to read (barring students with severe handicaps of some
sort).  From my own experience, tests were always in written form from the
first grade on, and if you always failed tests (which you would if you
couldn't read or write), you'd never graduate _middle_ school, let alone
high school.  Even in elementary school, kids were _required_ to read,
sometimes in front of the class.  Graduating without knowing how to read
would be graduating after having failed every test and nearly every homework
assignment.  Unless the student has been specifically exempted from doing
schoolwork (for whatever reason), they couldn't graduate without knowing how
to read.