3 posts tagged “literacy”

I came across an article from the BBC website (through Emu’s blog) where an American expert says that kids are reading too early.
   This comes in the wake of UK government proposals that kids should be taught to read earlier.
   Dr Lilian Katz says kids could be put off learning, and education too early harms boys more than girls. She also points out that in Scandinavia formal education begins at six or seven.
   This is at odds with my experience.
   As I had to sit an examination to start kindergarten at age two, I had to begin studying for them at age one. I would say that before two I knew the alphabet and had numerical skills, being able to count to 99 very easily. I had to—the join-the-dots puzzles beckoned.
   My examination for kindergarten, which I had to do solo with only the examiner in the room (no, it was not easy, and I was terrified) consisted of putting shapes in holes. Which, incidentally, I had not studied for.
   When I think back, I must have bluffed it, because I remember crying through most of it.
   (Chatting to Dad tonight, he says this could have been a prep exam at another institution. Now that he mentions it, I have a vague recollection that I aced the actual one at kindy. Or at least it was less traumatic. I had assumed until today it was the kindergarten exam. Hey, 1975 was a busy year.)
   I had homework nightly from age 2½ at kindergarten, of handwriting. Pretty standard, really, to anyone who has ever lived in Hong Kong.
   As I was Dux at my primary school in New Zealand and Proxime Accessit (salutatorian to our American friends) at high school, I don’t think the early start put me off learning.
   And today I still consider myself very much a student, still learning.
   The only difference I had with most kids is I took the ages of four to five off because of emigrating (spending a year watching Play School, The Brothers, Days of Our Lives, Des Britten and Sesame Street is not a bad thing), and because my parents did not know there was such a thing as pre-school in New Zealand. Instead, I geared up learning a few key English phrases (‘Please may I go to the toilet?’) to start the primers.
   The thought of not having a formal education till five, six or seven sounds ridiculous to me and I imagine would be crazy to most people from my culture.
   I am sure Dr Katz has observed that by and large, oriental children can do rather well at school, even if I am furthering a stereotype here. But I did indeed observe this myself through my primary school career.
   A late start sounds like total and utter bollocks to me, though unlike the professor I don’t have a big sample to work from.
   But I wonder if she has made any examinations of the east Asian experience.
   While I believe I did start too young in having homework or sitting an entrance exam, there surely is a happy medium between what is normal in east Asia and what is normal in the occident. Kids are aching to learn—and want to—as they absorb the world around them.

John Mennell of MagazineLiteracy.org sent out the nicest email a few days back. I am feeling unwell, so I have decided to copy and paste. Besides, I want folks to pop by Mike Swenson’s blog post that John refers to.
   Running a fashion magazine does mean being aware, and doing something about, the social causes that affect us—and John’s venture is one of the best suited. Plus, it is a good cause: literacy is vital, and I am still shocked on how some parents do not know they have illiterate kids, even down here in New Zealand. I was told of one case very recently in Auckland, where an 11-year-old still cannot read, yet had been going up the grades as though he could.

Jack Yan is the wonderful publisher of Lucire magazine who has be[en] selflessly promoting our work since the moment we met on our anniversary—International Literacy Day, 2005. He introduced us to Stacie J, a wonderful friend, actor, model, and entrepreneur who sends Time for Kids to 60 children in an after school program in Harlem, and … thanks to his relentless support and outreach, Mike Swenson, a national guru on cause related marketing. Check out Mike’s compelling blog post today about feeding kids hungry to read and succeed:

http://citizenbrand.typepad.com/swenson/2007/04/magazines_for_k.html

I’ve been blogging a bit more and will continue with this outreach into the blogosphere:

http://magazineliteracy.org/blog/

Our focus this year is engaging magazine consumers for celebrations around key events—magazine reuse on Earth Day … recruiting magazine publishing champions for International Literacy Day … and getting magazines into the hands, homes, and hearts of children learning to love to read during Children’s Magazine Month in October.
   It’s well established that cause related marketing increases consumer interest, engagement, appreciation, and enjoyment of associated products. Our fundamental strategy for raising the sustainable revenue necessary to support our literacy programs year after year is to be ubiquitous in this mutually beneficial marketplace.
   Sadly, children’s reading and literacy scores in U.S. schools are not improving. More than 85 million adults in the U.S. have low or very low literacy skills. These adults were once children who did not get the chance to learn how to read. In schools today, 1 in 3 children overall lack basic reading skills, with 2 in 3 falling short of reading proficiency. The disparity between children in poverty and their better off peers is even larger. When those who qualify for the Federal Free and Reduced Price Lunch program are considered, which includes children in families with incomes up to twice the national poverty rate, half of these children lack basic reading skills and only 1 in 6 reads at a proficient level. A child cannot do well in any school subject or in life without learning how to read. An illiterate adult cannot read a job application or a cereal box.
   I launched the MagazineLiteracy.org campaign because something very big and wonderful was poised to deliver its full promise on the American literacy landscape—all those colorful, topical, engaging magazines that called to each of us as children and instilled a love that draws us irresistibly to our mailboxes and to every nearby newsstand. There is a mission critical role here for every magazine industry thought leader and stakeholder.
   Hold on to your hats. We are going for an amazing journey!

John 
 
John Mennell
Founding Director
MagazineLiteracy.org
66 Witherspoon St., No. 207
Princeton, NJ  08542
609.651.4340
To learn more about feeding kids hungry to read and succeed
Industry Portal: http://partners.MagazineLiteracy.org/
Consumer Portal: http://MagazineLiteracy.org/
Children's Magazine Month: http://childmagmonth.org/

[Cross-posted] John Mennell at the Magazine Publishers’ Family Literacy Project, with which Lucire is affiliated, told me today that his organization now has s. 501(c)(3) status, which means more and better fund-raising options. You’re free to help this literacy programme to help kids read by visiting this page and downloading an appropriate badge.
   In John’s words, the Project is ‘the first and only national, magazine industry-wide literacy effort for children and families,’ and it’s our pleasure to support it.
   John and I began working together in 2005 and met that year. Through a Lucire event, he met Stacie Jones Upchurch (The Apprentice), who wound up supporting John’s group through her Harlem store.