Reading for Understanding

We all live in the same world together. Some of us, regardless of what anyone says, are smarter than average and some are sadly dumber than average. This has little to do with basic intelligence, but a lot to do with our understanding of how the world works.

In the US we all get to go to school for free, if we choose, up to the 12^th grade. Some schools are better than other. Some schools are better funded, some have a better clientele, some have better staff, some have better surroundings.

Schools today are doing way too much socializing. They have to because the parents are not properly teaching their children things they have to know to get along in the world. So the teacher has to explain the word "no" means "no" and isn't contingent upon the whine level of the frustrated soul who simply wants to hoard all the blocks and not share with the group.

Sharing is important in the world at large. We don't usually have to share something as meaningless as blocks, but we share space, the roads, our community, our tax dollars, etc. We all have to know how to deal with frustration and the world telling us "no" all dang day long.

You don't think the world does this? When is the last time you drove anywhere? Did you only have green lights? I hate to have to stop. I think it would be really cool if every traffic signal was green for me. But I stop at each red light because if we all disobeyed the traffic lights, none of us could drive. We have been socialized.

So schools are teaching too many kids what "no" means because they haven't yet learned this by the age of five. This is cutting into important time available to teach.

We need this teaching because we need to know stuff. We need the back story or we can't understand what in the world anyone is talking about currently. Educated people pull up for reference the history they have learned for current events. When someone says "Sistine Chapel" they aren't thinking some small backwoods church, but envisioning the huge, elaborately decorated cathedral in Rome. We don't need to go into the whole back story, we can talk about whatever current event is taking place.

When parents are told to read to their children and they shrug it off, they are teaching their children. They are teaching them bad things, but they are teaching them nonetheless. There are so many excuses why they can't read to their kids. The reasons are 1. too busy, 2. too lazy, or 3. illiterate themselves.

Here is a plan for the illiterate parents. Our schools have done a great job in teaching students to decode words. Most people in the US who can't read are not illiterate, but functionally illiterate. They can read the words, but they can't make any sense out of them. That is because they don't have the back story. Writing, like speaking, means you start somewhere and it is usually in the middle of the story. If someone doesn't pull up the entire mental picture of the Sistine Chapel, the following story will not make any sense. We need the back story.

If you have a limited vocabulary and a limited understanding and aren't sure how to go about reading with your children, here is how to help everyone. Public libraries as well as school libraries have two distinct sections. There is a fiction section and there is "fact" section. The fact books are sorted by numbers on the spine. This is the Dewey Decimal System. Each number represents subject matter.

Within each number are smaller numbers. I remember 636 as being pets or animals. So a 636.01 book is about a specific animal. These books are written at various comprehension levels. Some are written for primary grades, some are written for middle school understanding levels, some are written for adults. If the parents read the beginning books to their children, not only will the children learn, but so will the adults.

Beginning books have a smaller, more limited vocabulary. They explain what the words mean. Many give pronunciation guides for difficult words. They tell the back story. If you begin with these easiest books and work your way up through more difficult books, everyone benefits. Everyone.

The child benefits, the parent or caretaker benefits, the schools benefit, and society benefits. Both the child and adult will increase their understanding of the back story. Both the child and adult will improve their literacy rating. And most important, the child will learn that reading is a skill to be savored.

Everyone can move a little further to the right on that curve of who is smart and who isn't. Knowing the back story gives you an edge and lets you learn more, read better, and improves your chances in this scary world.

And if at all possible, learn what the word "no" means.