should a child have to pass reading to advance in school?

[rainstorm]

i say yes.
WHAT THE HECK? WHO NEEDS TO KNOW HOW TO READ ANYWAY?

My initial thought is that you won't believe what I'm about to tell you. But, then, you are Boortz listeners, and I spend no small amount of time relating stories to you that detail the incredible failures of government education. So you probably WILL believe this. Good thing,cause it's true.

We take you to Petersburg, Virginia. The Petersburg School Board is preparing to make some changes to its promotion policy. Evidently they feel that too much is being demanded of Petersburg government school students.

The Petersburg schools have five academic core subjects. They are language arts, math, social studies, science and reading. The school board has decided that students in grades one through five will only need to pass four of these subjects to be promoted to the next grade. One academic core subject will be removed from the requirement list for grade promotion.

The four subjects that will be required? They are language arts, math, social studies and science.

The subject that will NOT be required? Reading.

Can you believe this? Reading is the path to knowledge .. and this school board in Petersburg, Virginia wants to drop reading as a requirement for promotion in grades one through five?

School board vice chairwoman Dr. Florence Farley says that holding a child back because they fail a [reading] class is penalizing a student. Oh my gosh, we can't do that, can we? Why, we might damage this precious child's self esteem! After all, a good health self-esteem is much more valuable in our society than the ability to read.

You should know that teachers and parents in Petersburg are in open revolt against this school board, and the school board is running for cover. My guess is that the school board will lose on this one.

The truly amazing story here is that so many parents still think that government --- the same government that does virtually nothing well somehow is capable of educating their children.

Find a private school, folks and get your children away from these incompetent government schools. "

from http://www.boortz.com

[wx247]

Rainstorm... thanks for posting this. As a future educator I find this quite shocking and disconcerting. Reading is important and should be required. If you can't read none of the other subjects will be of use to you.

[Amanzi]

I agree with you 100% Garrett!

That is truly shocking! How can reading not be the number ONE subject, without being able to read and comprehend; other learning subjects are quite useless. It truly does not make one ounce of sense.

When I was at school in South Africa, if you failed in English (NO MATTER WHAT GRADE!) you were kept back a year.

Announcements such as these make it even easier for me to consider homeschooling my kids.

[rainstorm]

Rainstorm... thanks for posting this. As a future educator I find this quite shocking and disconcerting. Reading is important and should be required. If you can't read none of the other subjects will be of use to you.

we should be requiring excellence of students, not lowering standards till an education is meaningless

[Guest]

I can't believe that! The morons on that school board need to step down! Do they really think they can just cut reading as a core requirement? I am shocked to even hear of such a thing. I really believe that reading is the most important of all subjects. Reading IS learning. I am a very well educated young woman and I attribute most of my knowledge to reading. :?

[Stephanie]

Rainstorm... thanks for posting this. As a future educator I find this quite shocking and disconcerting. Reading is important and should be required. If you can't read none of the other subjects will be of use to you.

we should be requiring excellence of students, not lowering standards till an education is meaningless

ABSOLUTELY! They can't compete in the "real world" if they can't read!

The dumbing down of America...

[Lindaloo]

Yes I believe they should be able to read on at least their grade level to pass to the next grade. Case and point. A friend of my daughter's passed each year while in elementary school. She even received the "President's Award" for reading and also for Academic Excellence. My daughter also received this award. Upon entering middle school this same youngster was failing. Come to find out this girl was only reading on a 3rd grade level. How could this be when she received all those awards for reading? After talking with her Mother she decided to get her daughter help. She is now reading on her grade level. I was worried about my daughter after that. I had her tested and she is reading on a 10th grade level. I am sorry but this was not the little girls fault, but the schools fault!!

[CZonian]

I guess this mean that "word problems" in math are gone? Thank you thank you thank you. I hated word problems.

I guess this also means the math is just working with numbers. The way it was always intended to be.

Signed,

xTreme Scarscasm.

[southerngale]

Outrageous! If you can't read, you're held back until you can. That's the way it should be in every subject. If you don't pass, you don't go to the next class - plain and simple!

[streetsoldier]

Ladies and gents,

Most of you who are not actively involved in scholastic realms have little idea how prevalent functional illiteracy has become. Even back in the late 70's, I was enrolled in what was supposedly an "Honors" English Composition class; perhaps three out of 22 were capable writers (and one of these was Australian).

"studentmom04" has had a belly-full of her classmates incompetence in the art of communication; more often than not, it is SHE who "leads" discussions and turns in the "collective wisdom" papers in the all-too-familiar "group-grading" her professors employ...and "coppertop" is daily assaulted by hearing and reading papers from his own TEACHERS, not to mention classmates, who can't put a sentence together with duct tape.

"Ebonics", "language tolerance" and any host of "feel-good" measures, first pushed in the 70's, are responsible for this rapid decline into absurdity; and it is high time to reverse the curve.

[WidreMann]

Oh come on guys. The kids are learning the other stuff I guess. And if the kids don't feel good about themselves, it won't matter what they've learned, because they won't have the confidence to apply it. Once again, you people have misrepresented the problem.

I'M KIDDING!

Yeah, that was a stupid thing today, actually. Some stuff you got to do, and reading is one of those things. If we don't hold kids accountable (and the schools as well), then why the hell are we paying for them. It's the school's job to teach kids to read and it's the kids job to learn. And if somewhere along the way it doesn't work, then the school or the parents (and the kid as well of course) need to figure out a way to get the kid to learn to read, even if it means repeating a grade. That is the point of school after all - to teach kids stuff. It's not about keeping kids feeling good about themselves (that is not to say, though, that the schools should try to beat down the self-esteem of a kid), it's about learning.

[streetsoldier]

It is equally important that the students are given a wide variety of viewpoints from which to choose (and defend their choices by research); in essence, not so much teaching kids WHAT to think, but rather, HOW to think.

May I direct all of you to visit http://www.hillsdale.edu for some badly needed enlightenment on this subject?

[WidreMann]

It is equally important that the students are given a wide variety of viewpoints from which to choose (and defend their choices by research); in essence, not so much teaching kids WHAT to think, but rather, HOW to think.

But we are talking about basic reading skills (and at an elementary school level). That means, looking at letters on a page and making sense out of them - not literary criticism. It's such a basic skill that there really isn't an alternative, much like being able to speak a language (or use other form of communication if deaf, for example). Nobody can just not have a way of communicating and expect to get anywhere in society. Similarly, everyone needs to know how to read. Learning how to make good higher level interpretations is another story, but you don't teach that in elementary school anyways, so the point is moot.

[David]

Kids these days have to read, end of discussion. I'll explain later.... Anyone object?

[streetsoldier]

Then, please tell me why, in 5th grade, I was assigned to contrast Plato's Republic and Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince, and deliver a desultory paper thereafter?

Perhaps the standards under which I was educated would be considered artificially stiff today, yet...this is exactly the same standard that Hillsdale Academy expects of its students (K-12); and their students benefit greatly by said experience, as I once did through my own.

[pojo]

I'm one of those students that struggled with reading. During Elementary school, I was too dumb (comprehension wise) for the normal class and too smart for the special reading classes. Instead holding me back because of my reading comprehension difficulties, my teachers pushed me ahead. I fought on a daily basis with one of my 8th grade English teachers, whom also turned out to be my 10th grade English teacher, because she kept giving our class reading quizzes. I would read, yet would fail the quizzes. She resorted to having my mother sign a slip saying that I read the assigned pages. I read those pages, but again, failed the quizzes. There were many days that I had to stay after school to read infront of her. Those were the days that I hated reading especially in English classes. On the other hand, if it was for Social Studies, Science History, etc, I'd read the books on a daily basis.

Every standardized 'tracking' test that I took, the reading/comprehension part was by far, the lowest. I was tested in 10th grade for reading skills, by the request of my teacher, and I was tested at an 6th grade level.

I finally entered back into the reading spotlight during my senior year with College Writing. We had to read a book called Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. I actually loved reading that book and soon, I saw myself reading the sequel.

Although, I'm starting my senior year at UWGB, my reading comprehension skills have gone up dramatically. I'm reading at my own level...by in part, thanks to my College Writing teacher who taught me that I can't get through this world without reading.

I ask you this question...why are Harry Potter Books so popular??? Without reading skills, children would not be amazed by the magical powers that Harry possesses, nor the creatures that roam the countryside. Without reading skills, children (and many adults) can't magically attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Without reading skills, JK Rowling would not have best sellers up the wazoo.

As you can see, reading is the ONLY subject in the world. Without it, we wouldn't be able to understand english and history, balance our checkbooks, or even vote in an election. Reading is EVERYTHING.

Children should be graded on ALL subjects...Reading, Social Studies, Science, Math, and Language Arts. For lack of better words, Removing Reading from the Curriculum is wrong.

[JCT777]

Great post, Shannon!

Definitely, being able to read is of utmost importance. I can't imagine someone being in a 5th grade class without being able to read.

[ColdFront77]

It isn't fair for those of us whose reading comprehension isn't well as it could be. You can have basic comprehension skills and trouble with more involved material and be very intelligent, like myself.

[streetsoldier]

ColdFront77,

No one is saying that "special needs" students should not be addressed; but I can say, with the certainty of having BEEN a teacher, that the term "special needs" has been expanded to cover a lot of sins, if you will, in modern educational standards (and I use the word "standards" with tongue-in-cheek).

[ColdFront77]

I wasn't considered a "special needs student." I am very glad that was the case.

Unfortunately, if I was diagnosed before I graduated high school in 1996, I probably would of been; there wouldn't have been any reason for it.