1. Maria Montessori was not a native English speaker. Some languages are far easier to learn to read than English. I'm sure her methods can be applied across many languages, but because her methods are about process, it may be a factor to include in any thought experiment. 2. We, the readers of your LJ, are not a good test population. I'm dead certain you can figure out why :) 3. Based on watching my own 3 kids learn to read, I wonder how accurate any memories of learning to read are. It has been different for all 3 and it occurs over time so it is hard to tell when it "happens." 4. Despite my mom telling me that I couldn't read before I went to school (because she "wouldn't let me") I find it hard to believe that I could go from "not reading" to reading all the readers in the classroom in a matter of weeks (I know that part is true. I remember the problems it caused.) 5. All my kids have pretended to read at very early ages. I know they were pretending because they all had the newspapers upside down!
Okay. I didn't get to 1st grade 'til I was nigh 7, because the stupid system said that if I wasn't 5 by December 1st, I couldn't start kindergarten for another year. They paid for that.
I agree that memories of learning to read are hazy. That's why I asked people who were grownups when I was a kidlet. They are admittedly fond elders, but since I don't remember it, I just have to trust them.
I knew I was supposed to read by 5. Not letting a child read when she's ready should be a felony. So should pressuring her to. I wasn't pressured, but knew what was wanted, and didn't want to do it. I knew when I had a good deal.
Pretty sure I cut my eyeteeth on Dr. Seuss and Little Golden Books. I still have the poetry one. Not newspapers except the funnies page. And as I said, I didn't want to be seen reading. But upside down? Oh, my. They must've still been in the strings of shapes phase. Their ambition is admirable, though.
And no, Dearlove, the hardcore readers of your journal cannot be considered an average sort of sample. We're a fair assortment of freaks, though. In the best sense of the word. Would you like us to be normal? (shudder) ;-)
"Not letting a child read when she's ready should be a felony. So should pressuring her to."
One of the cool features of Montessori is that each child learns at his or her own pace. And somehow everyone seems to get around to everything.
"the hardcore readers of your journal cannot be considered an average sort of sample"
Yeah, but since y'all are representative of the kinds of people I associate with in general, it's easy to forget that you're not representative of the gen.pop. once in a while even though I know better. (I made the same mistake when rating my own skills in high school -- I was comparing myself to my classmates because that was my only frame of reference, and they too were a skewed sample.)
(I made the same mistake when rating my own skills in high school -- I was comparing myself to my classmates because that was my only frame of reference, and they too were a skewed sample.)
This is similar in some ways to what happened to me in grade school. I grew up fairly far out in the country [northeastern MD] and from K-7th went to what I would term a "non-denominational private school" [i.e., non-religious, though many of the kids did go on to Catholic high schools for religious and/or educational reasons]. My parents selected it initially because when I was 5 Maryland did not yet have public kindergarten.
So, since my 24 grademates were almost my only frame of reference as far as childhood intelligence went, I mostly compared myself to them... as in, I thought I was dead average, in a school with a lot of slightly slower kids.
Thus it was a bit of a shock when I got an offer from my parents to get the heck out of there [I spent most of 5th-7th grades begging to go anywhere else because of issues with a particular classmate]: if I could do a year's worth of algebra over the summer, I could skip 8th grade and go to the big public high school -- where with 762 other people in my graduating class, as opposed to 24, there had to be somewhere for me to fit in, someone for me to be friends with.
Silly, naive, oblivious me, thinking everyone could do stuff like that... :)
I knew Dr. Montessori wasn't a native English speaker but had managed to overlook the effects of the differences between Italian and English on this question. Thank you for pointing that out.
Hmm. I know very little about Italian. (I never did the Rome semester while I was at UD.)
Just a few points to make here.....
2. We, the readers of your LJ, are not a good test population. I'm dead certain you can figure out why :)
3. Based on watching my own 3 kids learn to read, I wonder how accurate any memories of learning to read are. It has been different for all 3 and it occurs over time so it is hard to tell when it "happens."
4. Despite my mom telling me that I couldn't read before I went to school (because she "wouldn't let me") I find it hard to believe that I could go from "not reading" to reading all the readers in the classroom in a matter of weeks (I know that part is true. I remember the problems it caused.)
5. All my kids have pretended to read at very early ages. I know they were pretending because they all had the newspapers upside down!
Re: Just a few points to make here.....
I agree that memories of learning to read are hazy. That's why I asked people who were grownups when I was a kidlet. They are admittedly fond elders, but since I don't remember it, I just have to trust them.
I knew I was supposed to read by 5. Not letting a child read when she's ready should be a felony. So should pressuring her to. I wasn't pressured, but knew what was wanted, and didn't want to do it. I knew when I had a good deal.
Pretty sure I cut my eyeteeth on Dr. Seuss and Little Golden Books. I still have the poetry one. Not newspapers except the funnies page. And as I said, I didn't want to be seen reading. But upside down? Oh, my. They must've still been in the strings of shapes phase. Their ambition is admirable, though.
And no, Dearlove, the hardcore readers of your journal cannot be considered an average sort of sample. We're a fair assortment of freaks, though. In the best sense of the word. Would you like us to be normal? (shudder) ;-)
Re: Just a few points to make here.....
One of the cool features of Montessori is that each child learns at his or her own pace. And somehow everyone seems to get around to everything.
"the hardcore readers of your journal cannot be considered an average sort of sample"
Yeah, but since y'all are representative of the kinds of people I associate with in general, it's easy to forget that you're not representative of the gen.pop. once in a while even though I know better. (I made the same mistake when rating my own skills in high school -- I was comparing myself to my classmates because that was my only frame of reference, and they too were a skewed sample.)
Definitely not asking for normal.
Whatever we are, seems normal to us, right?
This is similar in some ways to what happened to me in grade school. I grew up fairly far out in the country [northeastern MD] and from K-7th went to what I would term a "non-denominational private school" [i.e., non-religious, though many of the kids did go on to Catholic high schools for religious and/or educational reasons]. My parents selected it initially because when I was 5 Maryland did not yet have public kindergarten.
So, since my 24 grademates were almost my only frame of reference as far as childhood intelligence went, I mostly compared myself to them... as in, I thought I was dead average, in a school with a lot of slightly slower kids.
Thus it was a bit of a shock when I got an offer from my parents to get the heck out of there [I spent most of 5th-7th grades begging to go anywhere else because of issues with a particular classmate]: if I could do a year's worth of algebra over the summer, I could skip 8th grade and go to the big public high school -- where with 762 other people in my graduating class, as opposed to 24, there had to be somewhere for me to fit in, someone for me to be friends with.
Silly, naive, oblivious me, thinking everyone could do stuff like that... :)
Re: Just a few points to make here.....
Hmm. I know very little about Italian. (I never did the Rome semester while I was at UD.)