The 7 Deadly Sins and the TAO

<b>The 7 Deadly Sins and the TAO</b>
Use the TAO wisdom to overcome the 7 Deadly Sins, and live in reality, instead of in fancy and fantasy.

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

The Importance of Teaching Your Child to Read

A READING PROBLEM IN THE UNITED STATES

The United States is the most affluent and technologically advanced of all the industrial nations on earth. With its “free” compulsory education for all, a network of state-owned and state-operated teachers’ training colleges, strict teacher certification requirements, and more money and resources dedicated to education than any other nation on earth, the appalling illiteracy rate of the country is a disgrace to educators. Teaching children to read should be the foremost responsibility of all parents. Well, sometimes you cannot blame the parents, because they themselves may be poor readers to begin with—it is something like the blind leading the blind.

Even if parents are educated, they may not want to spend quality time with their children. It is not surprising to find some parents with the notion that their only parental responsibility is to bring their children into this world, leaving them to fend for themselves in matters of education and learning, or simply relegating the intellectual well-being of their children to their teachers.

In addition, many people may erroneously believe that in this day and age, information can be readily obtained from the visual media, such as the television, such that there is little need to turn to the written word, and hence the general indifference to developing reading skills.

PARENTS SHOULD TEACH THEIR CHILDREN TO READ

Reading should always begin at home, and parents should be children's first teachers. Ideally, teaching children to read should be the joint efforts of both parents and teachers. It has always been a wrong presumption that teachers alone should do the teaching of reading and that teaching should be conducted only at school. Contrary to popular belief, educational researchers have found that important aspects of intellectual behavior are often acquired at home rather than at school.

Parenthood is not just a moment; it is an ongoing process. It would be wrong for parents to assume that they could ease their responsibility of teaching once their children attend school. At best, the nursery or kindergarten should be an adjunct to, not a substitute for, the home and the role of parents.

Since parents teach their children to talk, it is only natural that they should teach them to read as well. If parents think they should educate their children, they should shoulder the responsibility of teaching their children to read. To teach their children to read and write is the greatest gift and enjoyment of all parents. If you do not enjoy your child, why did you bother having one in the first place?

WHY YOU CAN TEACH YOUR CHILD TO READ

Parents, who are interested in their children's intellectual development and who are responsive to their children's interest in printed language can teach basic reading skills. They not only can but also must if they want their children to become early and proficient readers. Children are born learners; and parents are natural teachers and main educators of their children in reading and writing in their early years. Parents do not need a course in reading instruction before they can effectively teach reading and writing. Parents often have the following advantages over their teachers:

They understand much better the temperamental climate of their own children—their interests in certain activities and their readiness to learn.

They can provide consistently daily reinforcement in developing their reading skills—something that may not be possible at school.

They can afford the one-on-one relation with them, which is virtually impossible in the classroom.

They can create a learning environment that makes learning easy and possible, since parents already provide for them all of their basic daily needs.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau


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