Shaming and Reading

[lydamorehouse]

If you could only see me now. I'm sitting in front of this state-of-the art brand new computer, complete with flat screen monitor and... dialing-up. 'Tis sad. It's a bit like having a Tomcat fighter jet that doesn't fly, and you can only taxi around the runway thinking, "Wow, this this is cool. Doesn't go very fast, but it's cool!"

I worked out again today, although this every other day thing is a lot harder on my muscles. How does Cap stay in such good shape? (Oh, right, the super soldier formula.)

The news from Mason is that I appear to have missed the memo regarding walking Mason to the classroom. All of the other parents who give their kids rides are now dropping their kids off at the front door. Or so it seems. I realize that expecting Mason to walk to the right classroom every day isn't beyond his abilities. In fact, doing so definately would encourage independence, which is something, admittedly, he should be working on right now (he's gotten back into the habit of not wanting us out of eye-sight when he's feeling skittish.) But, but... I kind of like it. Walking Mason to his classroom every morning is one of the ways *I* feel connected to his education. I get a chance every day to see what's on the white board and see all the other kids getting changed out of their snow clothes. I suppose its silly, but as I haven't gotten the memo, I'm going to keep doing it. If there really is a new policy I'm sure Mrs. R. will inform me tomorrow when I go to stuff Thursday folders (my volunteer work for the school.)

You know, I've ranted about this before here, but I'm continually shocked at what Pre-K students are expected to do. Yesterday, when I came in there was a whole clot of kids over by the "active learning time" assignment board staring helplessly at their names. Mrs. R. has a list of places they're supposed to go, but it's written out --- there's no visual clue outside a colored dot that presumably matches a colored dot at the station. These kids recognized their names spelled out, but not the word that belonged to the station they were supposed to go to. Dalton, who always surprises me with his social engineering skills, asked me to help, which I did.

I'm sure Mrs. R. was angry that I read those words to those kids, because no doubt this sort of exercise is meant to help kids start to puzzle out the words, but a lot of that depends on personality. Fear/Pressure as a motivator wouldn't have worked for me. When I told Shawn about this, we both agreed that if we were those kids who couldn't read and knew we were supposed to go somewhere we both would have collapsed in sheer panic. I would have been in tears at four years old if an adult expected me to be somewhere and I didn't have the skill to figure it out. I wanted to follow the rules. More to the point there doesn't seem to be an opportunity to learn. It's not like Mrs. R. stands next to the board and helps the students sound out the words. Or that there are pictues that correspond, like a picture of a theatre mask next to "drama." (Although there may have been earlier this year, and now they're down to colored dots.) Still, you'd think someone could stand there and say, "Okay, so you don't know this word. Do you know this letter? What's a word in this classroom that starts with that letter? No idea? Okay, is there some other way you can see to figure out where you're supposed to be? How about this dot? What color is it? Do you see a dot of the same color somewhere in this room? It's a scavenger hunt! Who can find the dot?" And then you make it fun, not... well, shaming.

Shame seems like a dumb way to get someone interested in learning. Even so, it would be one thing if this were first grade or even kindergarden (although I don't remember reading until first grade), but these are mostly 4 year olds. I say this, too, knowing that Mason has no problem doing any of this. He came to Pre-K able to read. I, however, didn't send Mason to school at 4 years old to learn to read. I sent him to school to learn how to be at school and how to play with others and how to follow rules.

/rant.

Speaking of school, must go to pick him up now.

Comments

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

I do not like this teacher of yours. Even at the kindy we visited two weeks ago, they still use both pictures and words for cues. (And the children do learn to read, I understand! I asked a parent of a current kindergarten child and she was very positive about how the reading was going.) Enough already with the independence, it's pre-K, there is also supposed to be some measure of nurturing and ceremony.