There may just be a light at the end of this never-ending education tunnel for Americans. Check this out and allow yourself to feel hopeful for a moment.
Those little elementary kids are adding, subtracting, and multip
lying like little mathematicians. The scores have been on the upward slope for twenty years and have just reached the all-time high.
However, the reading scores prove to be disappointing once again. An interesting distinction is made between the two areas of study. Math, a subject taught heavily in the classroom, is not employed much in the home. Teachers usually introduce new math materials, ones that students aren't likely to figure out on their own.
Reading, however, is a necessity. Students must learn to read at school, at home, anywhere their travels make take them. The low reading scores do not necessarily reflect poor classroom instruction, but perhaps poor instruction at home. Teaching students to read is a shared responsibility--teachers and parents must come together.
As an aspiring English teacher, this is a subject I feel passionate about. Parents need to take the initiative to read to and with their children on a daily basis. Anything less is unacceptable. Their young children may fight and resist it for now, but they will thank them one day for it.
One quotation from the article pinpoints the importance of proficient reading skills, "Literacy is the building block to all learning and you have to build a love for reading the minute they walk in the door," said Ms. Hicks, who leads a school where 98% of the students are low-income.
Time to crunch the numbers of reading test scores and get on the ball with literacy.
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