30yrs ago, children could read better

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should be required to be screen free the entire day. EdTech is a disaster for learning. It's not like back in the day when tech was something you had to learn to use. These days, even Gorillas and chipanzees can use Ipads! https://www.wired.com/2012/05/orangutans-use-the-ipad/

If there was one thing I could fire into the sun, it would be EdTech.

+ a million

On top of how it rots our kids' brain, it is an incredible waste of school system money that could be better spent on aides and the actual human beings that teach our children

+1, it's a scam. Also at the same time it's rewiring kids' brains for short attention spans and needing dopamine hits provide by interactive screens to maintain interest in something, it also contributes to weaker teaching skills. Teachers who become reliant on programs like iReady don't get as much experience as older teachers got with working with students, and young teachers need the reps.

Teachers often like iPads in classrooms because it gives them a break that they can use to work with small groups or individuals (other kids will be more engaged with a screen than they would be with solo work). That's understandable, but short sighted. It's the same problem as you see with parents who rely on screens to distract kids -- the kids do not learn how to behave without the pacifier of the screen, and it leads to worse behavior long-term.

+2 What I don't understand is how there seemingly hasn't been much investigation into the corruption that is obviously happening. A lot of people are clearly getting paid to push this poison in schools.

Schools end up using technology to mitigate issues with overcrowding/understaffing.

We should properly fund our schools to reduce class size and bring in more teachers and reading specialists.

This is untrue. Class sizes in our area used to be bigger. We still have the photos. It's dumbing down the standards. Maybe reducing the budget too to take out the tech dollars and use workbooks instead.

There was no differentiation back then. Teachers just taught and it didn’t matter if some kids already knew it or if some kids didn’t get it.

And somehow all kids learned better. Some learned a lot more than kids do now, some learned little more. But all kids did better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One can thank Lucy Calkins and Fountas & Pinnell for much of that decline.

Other disasters:
1. print first then cursive, followed by replacement of cursive with typing
2. de-emphasizing wrote memorization particularly multiplication table/math facts
3. technology in the classroom
5. mainstreaming special needs kids in the classroom
6. not expelling for academic underperformance and repeat behavior problems
7. not requiring chapter books to be read from cover-to-cover
8. finally and most controversially: whining about test prep. Some would call preparing for an exam studying (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). If it is a well-written exam there is nothing wrong with teaching to it!

Oh, the irony.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frightening article in the NYT today -

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/us/reading-skills-naep.html#commentsContainer

It’s all because of immigration. Import the third world, become the third world.

But the immigrants are doing very well in education. All the Asian-Americans are just exceptional students who have better English scores in all the standardized tests than...White and Black Americans who have lived here for more than 2 generations. Why is that?

They have parents who care and prioritize their education and enrichment. The secret sauce in Asian-American academic success is their culture and family. They are hard workers and believe in improving themselves. What other explanation is there for children of non-native English speakers, excelling in English comprehension and creative writing? They have educated themselves. In fact, most of these kids also excel in elocution. You see them excel in debate, poetry slams, speech etc.

Yes. Check out the National Spelling Bee line up or and computer science competition

No they don’t excel in poetry slams compared to Black Americans and White Americans. Black teens dominate poetry slams. They do excel at spelling bees but most Americans see those as a huge waste of time.

Debate is new to some Asian countries while some still don’t teach debate at all. It’s a positive step towards removing Asian stereotypes that they are just good at repeating what they have learned or memorized.

Who the hell cares who “dominates poetry slams?” And only dumb Americans see spelling bees as a “huge waste of time.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One can thank Lucy Calkins and Fountas & Pinnell for much of that decline.

Other disasters:
1. print first then cursive, followed by replacement of cursive with typing
2. de-emphasizing wrote memorization particularly multiplication table/math facts
3. technology in the classroom
5. mainstreaming special needs kids in the classroom
6. not expelling for academic underperformance and repeat behavior problems
7. not requiring chapter books to be read from cover-to-cover
8. finally and most controversially: whining about test prep. Some would call preparing for an exam studying (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). If it is a well-written exam there is nothing wrong with teaching to it!

I agree with some of your points -- mostly the lack of memorization, technology, and chapter books.

Test prep, I agree -- if a teacher writes a test, it's fine to drill and prepare the kids to pass it. It's the relentless of standardized testing, and the pressure on teachers to make every kid pass, that made this go too far.

The exams should not be standardized, they should be pass/fail based on a certain percent of correct questions. If a student cannot get 95% on a multiplication fact test they should not be allowed to advance to 4th grade. A student who cannot read 3rd grade level chapter books should not be allowed to pass to 4th grade. Around the transition between 3rd and 4th students go from learning to read to reading to learn. Kids who cannot read properly must not be advanced.

The tests should be given twice, in the middle of the year and again at the end of the year so everybody knows who needs extra help before they are at risk of failing a grade. The parents of struggling children need to be told their kids are struggling so both the parents and the school can pull together and remediate the child. Passing children to subsequent grades who are simply not at level is an unmitigated educational disaster. There is absolutely nothing wrong with testing. Evading testing is evading accountability, both from teachers to teach and parents to assist at home. There is absolutely no way to know where each of 30 kids in a classroom is academically without testing.

A kid who got 5 minutes of flashcard drills daily at home starting the beginning of third grade absolutely will pass the multiplication fact test. Apparently we are learning the hard way such drilling is required. There's nothing wrong with common core drawing out the dots so the student understands what multiplication is doing, but at the end of the day they have to have the facts down cold to be able to comfortably move on to higher level math. The congestive load of doing algebra when multiplication facts are shaky is too heavy and it is unfair to the student. It causes the student to think they are stupid and bad at math.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with teaching to a third grade phonics or multiplication fact test. When teachers whine about this I really have to wonder what they would prefer to teach third graders over multiplication facts and why they feel entitled to screw over a kids education in their apparent aim of prioritizing gluing cotton balls to paper plates (or worse).

The first two bolded statements tell me that you are not a teacher. Not all children learn as readily as yours apparently do. Congratulations.

The third bolded statement is so inflammatory and offensive that I don’t even know how to address, but do I feel the need to, beyond cashing it out as bad behavior. If you can’t be bothered to go figure out what teachers are facing, I’m not going to type it out here. Just know that that entire post came off as ignorant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should be required to be screen free the entire day. EdTech is a disaster for learning. It's not like back in the day when tech was something you had to learn to use. These days, even Gorillas and chipanzees can use Ipads! https://www.wired.com/2012/05/orangutans-use-the-ipad/

If there was one thing I could fire into the sun, it would be EdTech.

+ a million

On top of how it rots our kids' brain, it is an incredible waste of school system money that could be better spent on aides and the actual human beings that teach our children

+1, it's a scam. Also at the same time it's rewiring kids' brains for short attention spans and needing dopamine hits provide by interactive screens to maintain interest in something, it also contributes to weaker teaching skills. Teachers who become reliant on programs like iReady don't get as much experience as older teachers got with working with students, and young teachers need the reps.

Teachers often like iPads in classrooms because it gives them a break that they can use to work with small groups or individuals (other kids will be more engaged with a screen than they would be with solo work). That's understandable, but short sighted. It's the same problem as you see with parents who rely on screens to distract kids -- the kids do not learn how to behave without the pacifier of the screen, and it leads to worse behavior long-term.

+2 What I don't understand is how there seemingly hasn't been much investigation into the corruption that is obviously happening. A lot of people are clearly getting paid to push this poison in schools.

Schools end up using technology to mitigate issues with overcrowding/understaffing.

We should properly fund our schools to reduce class size and bring in more teachers and reading specialists.

100%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should be required to be screen free the entire day. EdTech is a disaster for learning. It's not like back in the day when tech was something you had to learn to use. These days, even Gorillas and chipanzees can use Ipads! https://www.wired.com/2012/05/orangutans-use-the-ipad/

If there was one thing I could fire into the sun, it would be EdTech.

+ a million

On top of how it rots our kids' brain, it is an incredible waste of school system money that could be better spent on aides and the actual human beings that teach our children

+1, it's a scam. Also at the same time it's rewiring kids' brains for short attention spans and needing dopamine hits provide by interactive screens to maintain interest in something, it also contributes to weaker teaching skills. Teachers who become reliant on programs like iReady don't get as much experience as older teachers got with working with students, and young teachers need the reps.

Teachers often like iPads in classrooms because it gives them a break that they can use to work with small groups or individuals (other kids will be more engaged with a screen than they would be with solo work). That's understandable, but short sighted. It's the same problem as you see with parents who rely on screens to distract kids -- the kids do not learn how to behave without the pacifier of the screen, and it leads to worse behavior long-term.

+2 What I don't understand is how there seemingly hasn't been much investigation into the corruption that is obviously happening. A lot of people are clearly getting paid to push this poison in schools.

Schools end up using technology to mitigate issues with overcrowding/understaffing.

We should properly fund our schools to reduce class size and bring in more teachers and reading specialists.

This is untrue. Class sizes in our area used to be bigger. We still have the photos. It's dumbing down the standards. Maybe reducing the budget too to take out the tech dollars and use workbooks instead.

There was no differentiation back then. Teachers just taught and it didn’t matter if some kids already knew it or if some kids didn’t get it.

And somehow all kids learned better. Some learned a lot more than kids do now, some learned little more. But all kids did better.

The expectations were also a lot lower. My kindergarten teacher wasn’t expected to teach her students how to read by the end of the year. I went to kindergarten for three hours a day a day and learned one letter each week. That’s it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should be required to be screen free the entire day. EdTech is a disaster for learning. It's not like back in the day when tech was something you had to learn to use. These days, even Gorillas and chipanzees can use Ipads! https://www.wired.com/2012/05/orangutans-use-the-ipad/

If there was one thing I could fire into the sun, it would be EdTech.

+ a million

On top of how it rots our kids' brain, it is an incredible waste of school system money that could be better spent on aides and the actual human beings that teach our children

+1, it's a scam. Also at the same time it's rewiring kids' brains for short attention spans and needing dopamine hits provide by interactive screens to maintain interest in something, it also contributes to weaker teaching skills. Teachers who become reliant on programs like iReady don't get as much experience as older teachers got with working with students, and young teachers need the reps.

Teachers often like iPads in classrooms because it gives them a break that they can use to work with small groups or individuals (other kids will be more engaged with a screen than they would be with solo work). That's understandable, but short sighted. It's the same problem as you see with parents who rely on screens to distract kids -- the kids do not learn how to behave without the pacifier of the screen, and it leads to worse behavior long-term.

+2 What I don't understand is how there seemingly hasn't been much investigation into the corruption that is obviously happening. A lot of people are clearly getting paid to push this poison in schools.

Schools end up using technology to mitigate issues with overcrowding/understaffing.

We should properly fund our schools to reduce class size and bring in more teachers and reading specialists.

This is untrue. Class sizes in our area used to be bigger. We still have the photos. It's dumbing down the standards. Maybe reducing the budget too to take out the tech dollars and use workbooks instead.

There was no differentiation back then. Teachers just taught and it didn’t matter if some kids already knew it or if some kids didn’t get it.

And somehow all kids learned better. Some learned a lot more than kids do now, some learned little more. But all kids did better.

The expectations were also a lot lower. My kindergarten teacher wasn’t expected to teach her students how to read by the end of the year. I went to kindergarten for three hours a day a day and learned one letter each week. That’s it.

Sure you did Jan

[Anonymous]

There has always been a lot more variation between different school systems than some posters in this thread seem to realize.

I do prefer the New England style of much smaller school systems to the MD/VA approach. In a smaller school system the superintendent has nowhere to hide and the central office is both smaller and much less drag on teachers ability to teach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frightening article in the NYT today -

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/us/reading-skills-naep.html#commentsContainer

It’s all because of immigration. Import the third world, become the third world.

But the immigrants are doing very well in education. All the Asian-Americans are just exceptional students who have better English scores in all the standardized tests than...White and Black Americans who have lived here for more than 2 generations. Why is that?

They have parents who care and prioritize their education and enrichment. The secret sauce in Asian-American academic success is their culture and family. They are hard workers and believe in improving themselves. What other explanation is there for children of non-native English speakers, excelling in English comprehension and creative writing? They have educated themselves. In fact, most of these kids also excel in elocution. You see them excel in debate, poetry slams, speech etc.

Yes. Check out the National Spelling Bee line up or and computer science competition

No they don’t excel in poetry slams compared to Black Americans and White Americans. Black teens dominate poetry slams. They do excel at spelling bees but most Americans see those as a huge waste of time.

Debate is new to some Asian countries while some still don’t teach debate at all. It’s a positive step towards removing Asian stereotypes that they are just good at repeating what they have learned or memorized.

Who the hell cares who “dominates poetry slams?” And only dumb Americans see spelling bees as a “huge waste of time.”

The person who claimed Asian immigrants dominate poetry slams cares. And if Asian immigrants want their kids to be so narrow in their learning, revolving around math, science and spelling that’s fine. It doesn’t mean Americans are dumb for not wanting to memorize the dictionary and countries of origin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should be required to be screen free the entire day. EdTech is a disaster for learning. It's not like back in the day when tech was something you had to learn to use. These days, even Gorillas and chipanzees can use Ipads! https://www.wired.com/2012/05/orangutans-use-the-ipad/

If there was one thing I could fire into the sun, it would be EdTech.

+ a million

On top of how it rots our kids' brain, it is an incredible waste of school system money that could be better spent on aides and the actual human beings that teach our children

+1, it's a scam. Also at the same time it's rewiring kids' brains for short attention spans and needing dopamine hits provide by interactive screens to maintain interest in something, it also contributes to weaker teaching skills. Teachers who become reliant on programs like iReady don't get as much experience as older teachers got with working with students, and young teachers need the reps.

Teachers often like iPads in classrooms because it gives them a break that they can use to work with small groups or individuals (other kids will be more engaged with a screen than they would be with solo work). That's understandable, but short sighted. It's the same problem as you see with parents who rely on screens to distract kids -- the kids do not learn how to behave without the pacifier of the screen, and it leads to worse behavior long-term.

+2 What I don't understand is how there seemingly hasn't been much investigation into the corruption that is obviously happening. A lot of people are clearly getting paid to push this poison in schools.

Schools end up using technology to mitigate issues with overcrowding/understaffing.

We should properly fund our schools to reduce class size and bring in more teachers and reading specialists.

This is untrue. Class sizes in our area used to be bigger. We still have the photos. It's dumbing down the standards. Maybe reducing the budget too to take out the tech dollars and use workbooks instead.

There was no differentiation back then. Teachers just taught and it didn’t matter if some kids already knew it or if some kids didn’t get it.

And somehow all kids learned better. Some learned a lot more than kids do now, some learned little more. But all kids did better.

The expectations were also a lot lower. My kindergarten teacher wasn’t expected to teach her students how to read by the end of the year. I went to kindergarten for three hours a day a day and learned one letter each week. That’s it.

That’s because teaching a 5 year old to read is basically developmentally inappropriate. Kinder is early childhood education and children learn best through play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should be required to be screen free the entire day. EdTech is a disaster for learning. It's not like back in the day when tech was something you had to learn to use. These days, even Gorillas and chipanzees can use Ipads! https://www.wired.com/2012/05/orangutans-use-the-ipad/

If there was one thing I could fire into the sun, it would be EdTech.

+ a million

On top of how it rots our kids' brain, it is an incredible waste of school system money that could be better spent on aides and the actual human beings that teach our children

+1, it's a scam. Also at the same time it's rewiring kids' brains for short attention spans and needing dopamine hits provide by interactive screens to maintain interest in something, it also contributes to weaker teaching skills. Teachers who become reliant on programs like iReady don't get as much experience as older teachers got with working with students, and young teachers need the reps.

Teachers often like iPads in classrooms because it gives them a break that they can use to work with small groups or individuals (other kids will be more engaged with a screen than they would be with solo work). That's understandable, but short sighted. It's the same problem as you see with parents who rely on screens to distract kids -- the kids do not learn how to behave without the pacifier of the screen, and it leads to worse behavior long-term.

+2 What I don't understand is how there seemingly hasn't been much investigation into the corruption that is obviously happening. A lot of people are clearly getting paid to push this poison in schools.

Schools end up using technology to mitigate issues with overcrowding/understaffing.

We should properly fund our schools to reduce class size and bring in more teachers and reading specialists.

This is untrue. Class sizes in our area used to be bigger. We still have the photos. It's dumbing down the standards. Maybe reducing the budget too to take out the tech dollars and use workbooks instead.

There was no differentiation back then. Teachers just taught and it didn’t matter if some kids already knew it or if some kids didn’t get it.

And somehow all kids learned better. Some learned a lot more than kids do now, some learned little more. But all kids did better.

The expectations were also a lot lower. My kindergarten teacher wasn’t expected to teach her students how to read by the end of the year. I went to kindergarten for three hours a day a day and learned one letter each week. That’s it.

That’s because teaching a 5 year old to read is basically developmentally inappropriate. Kinder is early childhood education and children learn best through play.

I agree. A lot of kids start to read on their own at that age anyway. First it’s memorization from having someone reading the same books over and over. Then they’ll recognize words from their favorite book in other books, and on it goes. I think more important is fine motor skills in kindergarten.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should be required to be screen free the entire day. EdTech is a disaster for learning. It's not like back in the day when tech was something you had to learn to use. These days, even Gorillas and chipanzees can use Ipads! https://www.wired.com/2012/05/orangutans-use-the-ipad/

If there was one thing I could fire into the sun, it would be EdTech.

+ a million

On top of how it rots our kids' brain, it is an incredible waste of school system money that could be better spent on aides and the actual human beings that teach our children

+1, it's a scam. Also at the same time it's rewiring kids' brains for short attention spans and needing dopamine hits provide by interactive screens to maintain interest in something, it also contributes to weaker teaching skills. Teachers who become reliant on programs like iReady don't get as much experience as older teachers got with working with students, and young teachers need the reps.

Teachers often like iPads in classrooms because it gives them a break that they can use to work with small groups or individuals (other kids will be more engaged with a screen than they would be with solo work). That's understandable, but short sighted. It's the same problem as you see with parents who rely on screens to distract kids -- the kids do not learn how to behave without the pacifier of the screen, and it leads to worse behavior long-term.

+2 What I don't understand is how there seemingly hasn't been much investigation into the corruption that is obviously happening. A lot of people are clearly getting paid to push this poison in schools.

Schools end up using technology to mitigate issues with overcrowding/understaffing.

We should properly fund our schools to reduce class size and bring in more teachers and reading specialists.

This is untrue. Class sizes in our area used to be bigger. We still have the photos. It's dumbing down the standards. Maybe reducing the budget too to take out the tech dollars and use workbooks instead.

There was no differentiation back then. Teachers just taught and it didn’t matter if some kids already knew it or if some kids didn’t get it.

And somehow all kids learned better. Some learned a lot more than kids do now, some learned little more. But all kids did better.

The expectations were also a lot lower. My kindergarten teacher wasn’t expected to teach her students how to read by the end of the year. I went to kindergarten for three hours a day a day and learned one letter each week. That’s it.

That’s because teaching a 5 year old to read is basically developmentally inappropriate. Kinder is early childhood education and children learn best through play.

I agree. A lot of kids start to read on their own at that age anyway. First it’s memorization from having someone reading the same books over and over. Then they’ll recognize words from their favorite book in other books, and on it goes. I think more important is fine motor skills in kindergarten.

Actually it turns out that teaching phonics beginning in kindergarten leads to better outcomes than the method of letting children simply learn by osmosis.

[Anonymous]

40 years ago half the kids went to school already knowing how to read. There’s nothing developmentally inappropriate about reading. That’s a cop out used by millennial parents to justify their kid being behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should be required to be screen free the entire day. EdTech is a disaster for learning. It's not like back in the day when tech was something you had to learn to use. These days, even Gorillas and chipanzees can use Ipads! https://www.wired.com/2012/05/orangutans-use-the-ipad/

If there was one thing I could fire into the sun, it would be EdTech.

+ a million

On top of how it rots our kids' brain, it is an incredible waste of school system money that could be better spent on aides and the actual human beings that teach our children

+1, it's a scam. Also at the same time it's rewiring kids' brains for short attention spans and needing dopamine hits provide by interactive screens to maintain interest in something, it also contributes to weaker teaching skills. Teachers who become reliant on programs like iReady don't get as much experience as older teachers got with working with students, and young teachers need the reps.

Teachers often like iPads in classrooms because it gives them a break that they can use to work with small groups or individuals (other kids will be more engaged with a screen than they would be with solo work). That's understandable, but short sighted. It's the same problem as you see with parents who rely on screens to distract kids -- the kids do not learn how to behave without the pacifier of the screen, and it leads to worse behavior long-term.

+2 What I don't understand is how there seemingly hasn't been much investigation into the corruption that is obviously happening. A lot of people are clearly getting paid to push this poison in schools.

Schools end up using technology to mitigate issues with overcrowding/understaffing.

We should properly fund our schools to reduce class size and bring in more teachers and reading specialists.

This is untrue. Class sizes in our area used to be bigger. We still have the photos. It's dumbing down the standards. Maybe reducing the budget too to take out the tech dollars and use workbooks instead.

There was no differentiation back then. Teachers just taught and it didn’t matter if some kids already knew it or if some kids didn’t get it.

And somehow all kids learned better. Some learned a lot more than kids do now, some learned little more. But all kids did better.

The expectations were also a lot lower. My kindergarten teacher wasn’t expected to teach her students how to read by the end of the year. I went to kindergarten for three hours a day a day and learned one letter each week. That’s it.

That’s because teaching a 5 year old to read is basically developmentally inappropriate. Kinder is early childhood education and children learn best through play.

I agree. A lot of kids start to read on their own at that age anyway. First it’s memorization from having someone reading the same books over and over. Then they’ll recognize words from their favorite book in other books, and on it goes. I think more important is fine motor skills in kindergarten.

Actually it turns out that teaching phonics beginning in kindergarten leads to better outcomes than the method of letting children simply learn by osmosis.

Schools are not teaching by osmosis. That just naturally happens especially at home when preschoolers like to read the same books all the time. This starts the process of learning to read. Kids coming into kindergarten are familiar with the alphabet and there are varying degrees of reading ability already. I don’t know at what point formal teaching of phonics should occur.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frightening article in the NYT today -

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/us/reading-skills-naep.html#commentsContainer

It’s all because of immigration. Import the third world, become the third world.

But the immigrants are doing very well in education. All the Asian-Americans are just exceptional students who have better English scores in all the standardized tests than...White and Black Americans who have lived here for more than 2 generations. Why is that?

They have parents who care and prioritize their education and enrichment. The secret sauce in Asian-American academic success is their culture and family. They are hard workers and believe in improving themselves. What other explanation is there for children of non-native English speakers, excelling in English comprehension and creative writing? They have educated themselves. In fact, most of these kids also excel in elocution. You see them excel in debate, poetry slams, speech etc.

Yes. Check out the National Spelling Bee line up or and computer science competition

No they don’t excel in poetry slams compared to Black Americans and White Americans. Black teens dominate poetry slams. They do excel at spelling bees but most Americans see those as a huge waste of time.

Debate is new to some Asian countries while some still don’t teach debate at all. It’s a positive step towards removing Asian stereotypes that they are just good at repeating what they have learned or memorized.

Who the hell cares who “dominates poetry slams?” And only dumb Americans see spelling bees as a “huge waste of time.”

The person who claimed Asian immigrants dominate poetry slams cares. And if Asian immigrants want their kids to be so narrow in their learning, revolving around math, science and spelling that’s fine. It doesn’t mean Americans are dumb for not wanting to memorize the dictionary and countries of origin.

Can you tell us one academic subject that Americans dominate or do better than Asians?