Sold a Story podcast

[Anonymous]

so if I am the primary educational source for my kid- why do I pay taxes to support schools. Also, how many posts have I seen on here- respect the teachers! But now- they don't want to be accountable for reading outcomes and the inability or unwillingness to teach? I am so confused. Please pick a side and stay on it. Also- you want more money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:so if I am the primary educational source for my kid- why do I pay taxes to support schools. Also, how many posts have I seen on here- respect the teachers! But now- they don't want to be accountable for reading outcomes and the inability or unwillingness to teach? I am so confused. Please pick a side and stay on it. Also- you want more money?

You are still going to pay those taxes when the kid is out of the school system, it doesn’t give you any more power than a 65-year-old grandfather.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:so if I am the primary educational source for my kid- why do I pay taxes to support schools. Also, how many posts have I seen on here- respect the teachers! But now- they don't want to be accountable for reading outcomes and the inability or unwillingness to teach? I am so confused. Please pick a side and stay on it. Also- you want more money?

Episode 4 is all about how easily a teacher can fall into teaching practices that aren't supported by research. https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/ It starts with the training they receive in college and it continues with the leadership, curricula, and professional development they encounter on the job. Teachers have been swimming in Balanced Literacy for years. It's unrealistic to expect them to buck the system like that. Accountability starts at the top.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older daughter was "taught to read" using this shit approach and is STILL behind and not reading well. F_ her kindergarten teacher.

You could take part of the blame as well. It’s not all on teachers.

Why? This was my first child and I trusted the school to teach my child how to read, and I trusted them when I said "she can't read these specific beginner books, is that a problem?" and they said "nope, she's right where she should be." How was I to know any better? I think he moral of the story here is you can't trust educators, which is so, so sad.

Spot on, that's why parents have to be the primary source of teaching for their children until they can fly solo (hopefully by middle school). Listen to, be respectful, but take teacher feedback with some skepticism; you as a parent can (and should) independently assess your kid at a young age and draw your own conclusions in addition to teacher, to reduce risk.

But nobody tells new parents this - I am the child of uneducated immigrants. Everything I needed to learn, I learned in school. I have a phD, I'm successful, yet I trusted that my kids would also learn everything they needed to know in school, and that was not the case. My child was in 2nd grade during Covid, and didn't learn how to read in K and 1st, so we had to spend all of last year (3rd grade) paying a tutor to get her up to speed after three years without learning how to read!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When your kid is a f***-up in their 30s, they’re not blaming Ms.Smith from 1st grade, they will blame the parents.

No they should blame the 30 yr old. An adult is an adult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:so if I am the primary educational source for my kid- why do I pay taxes to support schools. Also, how many posts have I seen on here- respect the teachers! But now- they don't want to be accountable for reading outcomes and the inability or unwillingness to teach? I am so confused. Please pick a side and stay on it. Also- you want more money?

First- Pay taxes = get stuff like free babysitting for school age children

From a republican stance if you have kids why don’t you want to work with them? It is fun? Why have kids if you don’t want to teach them they are learning from you all the time may as well teach them some thing.

Second - so now you are saying all teachers willingly said f that I’m going to mess your kid up and not teach reading? That is insane!


Yes I’m tired of teacher bashing. For political, misogynistic and general civil and worker rights I am tired of teacher bashing.

If you have credible peer reviewed research to link to any of your claims I will listen. If you have crap statistics you make up or just want to take out anger on teachers? See ya!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older daughter was "taught to read" using this shit approach and is STILL behind and not reading well. F_ her kindergarten teacher.

You could take part of the blame as well. It’s not all on teachers.

Why? This was my first child and I trusted the school to teach my child how to read, and I trusted them when I said "she can't read these specific beginner books, is that a problem?" and they said "nope, she's right where she should be." How was I to know any better? I think he moral of the story here is you can't trust educators, which is so, so sad.

Spot on, that's why parents have to be the primary source of teaching for their children until they can fly solo (hopefully by middle school). Listen to, be respectful, but take teacher feedback with some skepticism; you as a parent can (and should) independently assess your kid at a young age and draw your own conclusions in addition to teacher, to reduce risk.

But nobody tells new parents this - I am the child of uneducated immigrants. Everything I needed to learn, I learned in school. I have a phD, I'm successful, yet I trusted that my kids would also learn everything they needed to know in school, and that was not the case. My child was in 2nd grade during Covid, and didn't learn how to read in K and 1st, so we had to spend all of last year (3rd grade) paying a tutor to get her up to speed after three years without learning how to read!!!

If your child could not read by time they got to second grade, then yes you should have done something at that point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older daughter was "taught to read" using this shit approach and is STILL behind and not reading well. F_ her kindergarten teacher.

You could take part of the blame as well. It’s not all on teachers.

Why? This was my first child and I trusted the school to teach my child how to read, and I trusted them when I said "she can't read these specific beginner books, is that a problem?" and they said "nope, she's right where she should be." How was I to know any better? I think he moral of the story here is you can't trust educators, which is so, so sad.

Spot on, that's why parents have to be the primary source of teaching for their children until they can fly solo (hopefully by middle school). Listen to, be respectful, but take teacher feedback with some skepticism; you as a parent can (and should) independently assess your kid at a young age and draw your own conclusions in addition to teacher, to reduce risk.

But nobody tells new parents this - I am the child of uneducated immigrants. Everything I needed to learn, I learned in school. I have a phD, I'm successful, yet I trusted that my kids would also learn everything they needed to know in school, and that was not the case. My child was in 2nd grade during Covid, and didn't learn how to read in K and 1st, so we had to spend all of last year (3rd grade) paying a tutor to get her up to speed after three years without learning how to read!!!

If your child could not read by time they got to second grade, then yes you should have done something at that point.

Lady, were you around in first grade when school abruptly stoped in the middle of the school year??? Were you around when kids were 100% virtual while I was working full-time? I hired a virtual tutor during that year to teach my kid to read. So, like F_____ YOU, B___TCH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older daughter was "taught to read" using this shit approach and is STILL behind and not reading well. F_ her kindergarten teacher.

You could take part of the blame as well. It’s not all on teachers.

Why? This was my first child and I trusted the school to teach my child how to read, and I trusted them when I said "she can't read these specific beginner books, is that a problem?" and they said "nope, she's right where she should be." How was I to know any better? I think he moral of the story here is you can't trust educators, which is so, so sad.

Spot on, that's why parents have to be the primary source of teaching for their children until they can fly solo (hopefully by middle school). Listen to, be respectful, but take teacher feedback with some skepticism; you as a parent can (and should) independently assess your kid at a young age and draw your own conclusions in addition to teacher, to reduce risk.

But nobody tells new parents this - I am the child of uneducated immigrants. Everything I needed to learn, I learned in school. I have a phD, I'm successful, yet I trusted that my kids would also learn everything they needed to know in school, and that was not the case. My child was in 2nd grade during Covid, and didn't learn how to read in K and 1st, so we had to spend all of last year (3rd grade) paying a tutor to get her up to speed after three years without learning how to read!!!

If your child could not read by time they got to second grade, then yes you should have done something at that point.

No-What about when the teacher says your child is doing fine and gives them all 4s? This is your first child, so you are trusting the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so if I am the primary educational source for my kid- why do I pay taxes to support schools. Also, how many posts have I seen on here- respect the teachers! But now- they don't want to be accountable for reading outcomes and the inability or unwillingness to teach? I am so confused. Please pick a side and stay on it. Also- you want more money?

Episode 4 is all about how easily a teacher can fall into teaching practices that aren't supported by research. https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/ It starts with the training they receive in college and it continues with the leadership, curricula, and professional development they encounter on the job. Teachers have been swimming in Balanced Literacy for years. It's unrealistic to expect them to buck the system like that. Accountability starts at the top.

Correct. I was a teacher who taught balanced literacy. I knew how to teach phonics and could see that it was not working, but I had no choice. I secretly kept phonics books for the kids who struggled and taught them (secretly again) during lunch. But overall I taught the same balanced literacy/whole language crap that everyone else did, because I was forced to. We were required to all structure our lessons the same way, with the same books and activities, and the admin and literacy coaches would check to make sure we did. Anyone caught doing something different would be reviled as a bad teacher, isolated and harassed by admin, and soon pushed out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you want to feel totally frustrated and depressed about how reading curriculum in this country changed to whole language/cueing/balanced literacy that had no science and was really developed for poor readers as a last ditch effort- you should listen to this podcast. The reporting is fantastic and there are times you will want to punch some of these smug authors who made a ton off a useless approach to reading. And, some of the teachers who fell for it because they had never been taught anything else just shows how messed up our public education system is. Also, poor George W Bush tried to make the right move to phonics and got bamboozled by lobbyists.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sold-a-story/id1649580473

I disagree as the reporter doesn’t talk at all about broader issues in public education at least not in any released episodes.
She also doesn’t seem to understand that the reading wars have been happening long before the 1960s. Because of those flaws, I wouldn’t call it great reporting.

If you were to broaden the scope from what she focused on, where would you have taken the podcast? Would you have taken the story back to Horace Mann vs. Noah Webster? And what related educational issues would you have talked about?

Okay, to start, she had a story to sell: that phonics is the way to go and teachers were “wrong” not to teach phonics. It is a good story in the current climate where parents rightly want spelling work.

Here is a veteran education reporter (Valerie Strauss from Washington Post) with a story that tells both sides:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/03/27/case-why-both-sides-reading-wars-debate-are-wrong-proposed-solution/

Here is a quote:

This conceptual confusion persists. Bowers (2018) shows that every subsequent meta-analysis taken to support systematic phonics over whole language has made the same mistake of comparing systematic phonics to a mixture of different methods, or comparing systematic phonics to interventions that included no phonics. Accordingly, none of these meta-analyses should be taken to support systematic phonics over whole language.

Here is a further historical perspective:

https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=9488

Basically, there is historical perspective that this is a “side” issue. Keeping to one “side” versus another allows educational curriculum companies to make money because districts always need to buy new curriculums to that meet the new “side’s” requirements.

The broader educational issue is that this is not just in reading, but also in broader educational policy: how districts choose curriculum, how companies make it and why it is profitable to keep the idea of “sides” going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older daughter was "taught to read" using this shit approach and is STILL behind and not reading well. F_ her kindergarten teacher.

You could take part of the blame as well. It’s not all on teachers.

Why? This was my first child and I trusted the school to teach my child how to read, and I trusted them when I said "she can't read these specific beginner books, is that a problem?" and they said "nope, she's right where she should be." How was I to know any better? I think he moral of the story here is you can't trust educators, which is so, so sad.

Spot on, that's why parents have to be the primary source of teaching for their children until they can fly solo (hopefully by middle school). Listen to, be respectful, but take teacher feedback with some skepticism; you as a parent can (and should) independently assess your kid at a young age and draw your own conclusions in addition to teacher, to reduce risk.

But nobody tells new parents this - I am the child of uneducated immigrants. Everything I needed to learn, I learned in school. I have a phD, I'm successful, yet I trusted that my kids would also learn everything they needed to know in school, and that was not the case. My child was in 2nd grade during Covid, and didn't learn how to read in K and 1st, so we had to spend all of last year (3rd grade) paying a tutor to get her up to speed after three years without learning how to read!!!

If your child could not read by time they got to second grade, then yes you should have done something at that point.

Lady, were you around in first grade when school abruptly stoped in the middle of the school year??? Were you around when kids were 100% virtual while I was working full-time? I hired a virtual tutor during that year to teach my kid to read. So, like F_____ YOU, B___TCH.

You clearly are feeling self-conscious about it, the PP really hit a nerve. Which means you know you were in the wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older daughter was "taught to read" using this shit approach and is STILL behind and not reading well. F_ her kindergarten teacher.

You could take part of the blame as well. It’s not all on teachers.

Why? This was my first child and I trusted the school to teach my child how to read, and I trusted them when I said "she can't read these specific beginner books, is that a problem?" and they said "nope, she's right where she should be." How was I to know any better? I think he moral of the story here is you can't trust educators, which is so, so sad.

Spot on, that's why parents have to be the primary source of teaching for their children until they can fly solo (hopefully by middle school). Listen to, be respectful, but take teacher feedback with some skepticism; you as a parent can (and should) independently assess your kid at a young age and draw your own conclusions in addition to teacher, to reduce risk.

But nobody tells new parents this - I am the child of uneducated immigrants. Everything I needed to learn, I learned in school. I have a phD, I'm successful, yet I trusted that my kids would also learn everything they needed to know in school, and that was not the case. My child was in 2nd grade during Covid, and didn't learn how to read in K and 1st, so we had to spend all of last year (3rd grade) paying a tutor to get her up to speed after three years without learning how to read!!!

If your child could not read by time they got to second grade, then yes you should have done something at that point.

Should have done what? Asked the school to evaluate my child? Oh I did that and was gaslit about how she was on grade level and there was no issue. So we got private testing (waited four months and it $3800 out of pocket) and then we had to hire a private tutor at $125 per hour to teach phonics. Oh and then the school “reading specialist” kept trying to teach whole language. It was an overall awesome experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older daughter was "taught to read" using this shit approach and is STILL behind and not reading well. F_ her kindergarten teacher.

You could take part of the blame as well. It’s not all on teachers.

Why? This was my first child and I trusted the school to teach my child how to read, and I trusted them when I said "she can't read these specific beginner books, is that a problem?" and they said "nope, she's right where she should be." How was I to know any better? I think he moral of the story here is you can't trust educators, which is so, so sad.

Spot on, that's why parents have to be the primary source of teaching for their children until they can fly solo (hopefully by middle school). Listen to, be respectful, but take teacher feedback with some skepticism; you as a parent can (and should) independently assess your kid at a young age and draw your own conclusions in addition to teacher, to reduce risk.

But nobody tells new parents this - I am the child of uneducated immigrants. Everything I needed to learn, I learned in school. I have a phD, I'm successful, yet I trusted that my kids would also learn everything they needed to know in school, and that was not the case. My child was in 2nd grade during Covid, and didn't learn how to read in K and 1st, so we had to spend all of last year (3rd grade) paying a tutor to get her up to speed after three years without learning how to read!!!

But now you know and are empowered to fix it, better sooner than later! Also, I'm surprised that you were not aware that many kids start to slowly read by 1st (sometimes even earlier in K) so you should have seen some warning signs by late 1st grade, irrespective of Covid. Personally, I'm trying to teach my kindergartener how to read now, and I'm expecting that it will click to some degree *this year* and she'll be able to read some simple picture books with easy words/sentences. If she does not improve during beginning to middle of 1st grade next year, I will feel that something is wrong. I'm not trying to blame you personally but think that parents should know the signs and be aware of this (they should certainly be asking teachers the hard questions if they don't see their kid start to pick up interest in reading, or improvement across quarters). And what they do in school is not enough, parents have to practice a little each day with their kids at home, that will bring tremendous improvement and result in kids being early readers.

[Anonymous]

No wonder FCPS shelled out the money for Lexia and is forcing teachers to meet weekly minutes, analyze the data and deliver Lexia lessons based on that data.