Greetings, readers. This is a public service announcement brought to you by your friendly FrontDeskGirl. A warning before I start - this has nothing to do with hotels, so if you're not interested, stop reading now.
I work at the front desk of a hotel. I also work as an SAT tutor. I don't usually do tutoring on my own; instead, I work for a local learning center. And I have to say, I am horrified at what our schools are producing. And before all of you jump down my throat for saying that, consider this - bright, academically inclined people will do well in any school. It is how our schools teach the not-so-academically inclined children that is the real test of their effectiveness. And from what I see, that isn't very effective at all.
I had an 11th grader come in who could barely read. A girl who, when I said the SAT is designed as an objective test, asked me what the word objective meant. Another student who couldn't recognize exponents. One couldn't tell me the difference between "it's" and "its".
So, my PSA announcement is this. Parents, make your children READ. Yes, I said make (as in force) them. And I don't care if that stifles their independence or creativity or whatever the fuck child psychologists say it is they need these days. Otherwise, your child will be coming to see someone like me when it's time for the SATs. And no matter how good I am, I can't make up 5 years of vocabulary, reading skills, and grammar knowledge in 5 months. Don't worry about the math for now - a lot of that can be taught. What is hard to teach is reading comprehension and vocabulary - because those are skills your kid should have been building his whole life! It doesn't matter what it is they read - just that they're reading.
So make them start. Today. I may start crying if I see many more kids like this.
Amen!
ReplyDeleteSetting an example by reading yourself [in front of your kids] helps too and I don't mean just the internet. A book.
I started my kids out on comic books when they we little - they had books too - because they thought those were fun. Now they all read, all the time.
Comes in handy when your cable and internet go out. Gasp. :) [Ask me, it's happened]
I grew up reading nearly every waking hour of every day. I loved it.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I have a tutoring business and while I have yet to encounter a student as bad as you've described...I know it can happen. I'm terrified that it will, because I don't know how to go about building on, well, nothing. I have always assumed (correctly) that there is something to build on.
It's truly sad. Half the battle are the kids wanting to be there - I have one student who's around a 1200/2400 on the SAT - but she's my absolute favorite because she tries so hard.
ReplyDeleteI may have to give up on the girl who can barely read (comprehension-wise, I've actually found she's not too bad with reading), though. Since I'm not really a teacher, I don't think I'm qualified to teach someone at a 6th grade level. I don't expect perfection, but I do expect them to at least be at the 9th grade level when they come in! Sigh. It's all about the parenting (isn't it always?)
On the flip side of this issue is when the parent knows there is a problem and the school won't recognize it. I knew my kid had a learning disability and it was an uphill battle finding help. I could fill a book with what I went through I finally switched the kid to another school district that was more than willing. Kid graduated with high honors and is now in grad school.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I do agree that the parents need to be on top of the kids education, it isn't just the parents (or even the teachers) who are failing to educate these kids.