Looking At Reading In Our Schools Today

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 62, 10 August 1965, Page 5

Looking At Reading In Our Schools Today

What is the basic problem of reading in New Zealand schools, asks Mr P. H. Jones, of Taupo, in a series of articles in which he attempts to answer just this problem. This is the fifth of the series: —

Fairly enough, reading programmes test what has been presented; but mastery of the technique is never checked, only assumed. P.T.A. officials in Manitoba tested 600 children, using 20 three - letter and five four - letter words. In one class of 36, 30 spelt the word "jot" in 19 different ways. After six years of look-and say, 245 children were tested on one syllable words. On the familiar they read accurately, rapidly and fluently. On the unfamiliar they floundered helplessly. They spelt "groin" in 17 different ways. Some declined to read, saying they "couldn't read at all." How jslmilar this is to a report quoting Miss M. Simpson, senior inspector at Christchurch: "Premier children in our schools when asked to read unfamiliar material comparahle in level of difficulty with their ba^ic reader frequently say, "We can't read that, we haven't learnt the words.'V What they really mean is: "We don't know the sounds." According to Fleming, testing in England is done, as in America, by "putting a circle around, drawing a line under the word, or filling the empty space." If they can do that they can read.

Are we too satisfied with mediocrity, too complacent, too dependent on the Welfare State, lacking a disciplined approach to work? Only 30 years ago education was "a preparation for living." Deweyism changed that to "Education is living." In 1937 Dr Brunner quoted to the 1937 New Education Fellowship conference the definition: "The whole end and objective of education is training for the right use of leisure." Have we succeeded in that? In "Intermediate Schools in New Zealand" Watson says that two thirds of primary heads consider education an unfolding process while the same proportion of secondary principals think their work is to mould pupils for the future. Is more time lavished on the dull than on the brilliant? Was it not Dr C. E. Beeby who said: "In the end standards are the only thing." Once teachers were directed by inspectors to test the mechanics of reading today "Education" asks: "Has concern for the so - called mechanics of reading reacted to the detriment of reading as a leisure - time occupation?" One official lecturer suggested that in making reading interesting and entertain-

ing its real aim had been lost. Is our philosophy wrong, based as it is on placing the needs of the individuals above that of the soeial order? Is it true that every individual is unique? In England the Augmented Roman Alphabet experiment has 43 sounds. Can the transition be made siicoessfully from our 26 letters, and how will it afffect our spelling? Parents will hope it succeeds.