tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18463596.post6846915682204393301..comments2023-09-21T19:44:59.512-04:00Comments on Joy Leftow's Poetry Blog: Reading writing ... equals literacyJoy Leftowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700619411586350136noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18463596.post-75977022570619382672009-04-07T16:45:00.000-04:002009-04-07T16:45:00.000-04:00RUDF!John Holt says that children learn through ex...RUDF!<BR/><BR/>John Holt says that children learn through exploring meaning. He tells this tale of an infant attempting to catch his moms attention, with no success. So the child wandered off and returned with apiece of A4 paper with RUDF? written on it! The mother twigged and responded appropriately.<BR/><BR/>The point being that children are naturally acutely interested in meaning, theirs and those of the world around them. and if teaching appears meaningless or out of context to them the only incentive left is coercion, or avoidance of sanctions, humiliation etc etc...<BR/><BR/>Holt holds that infants never make mistakes, they simply explore and watch what happens. To an infant all is information. And then using the observations the child learns more.<BR/><BR/>Until they go to school and are told about mistakes. Mistakes are 'wrong' and they are told so. They then try to avoid making mistakes, and that stops their natural experimental explorations (which are innately intelligent - nature is no fool - Holt also says intelligence is not measured by what one knows, but by what one does when dealing with unknowns.)corneiliushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07286709354765150574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18463596.post-68276090863330448412009-04-07T15:38:00.000-04:002009-04-07T15:38:00.000-04:00Wow, what a post. I could help but relate to the d...Wow, what a post. I could help but relate to the different experiences you wrote about. <BR/><BR/>"I have met writers too who are good writers, and they cannot spell and don’t know proper grammar." I am one of those writers. I have to say that My grammar and spelling have decreased 10 fold since high school. I was a kid that felt tired of standing out. Moving from the suburbs to the inner city in 6th grade, I felt tired of being teased for the way that I spoke. I tried to pick up the lingo and blend in. When I went to college, away from the correction of my parents, I let loose and I spoke slang with the best of them. I still excelled in English until I started working and did not have to read for school or for pleasure. Working in health care with very little writing involved I did not notice my language skills slipping away; 18 years of battling insomnia has not helped. <BR/><BR/>Now I am 33 years old and I've decided to blog full time. It's a humbling experience to feel helpless to edit my own writing. I publish post only to discover the flaws later. To through in a good measure of irony, my husband is a professional editor/proofreader. He had offered to help me but I know that he's so busy that I would not be able to depend on him so I usually turn down his offer.<BR/><BR/>So it's back to the books for me. I'm confident that with effort my grammar will come back and i hope that my readers will be patient with me through the process. For the kids who have never learned to spell i the first place I feel for them. My mother also was able to read at 4 years old. Her mother was a house wife when she was young and her father was an educator. They read to her and provided her with lots of books.<BR/><BR/>Now a days kids don't get bedtime stories, they get Ipods. They think book are boring and wait for the movie instead. Their communication to each other consists of 2-4 letters that represents a sentence. So for the kids that already have a learning disorder they they get lost in the system and it seems impossible that they will ever catch up.3Lhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17414793921515206903noreply@blogger.com