Kids reading inadequacies.

[Skids]

Saw this on the News this morning.

The problem is, parents putting an ipad in front of their kids to keep them occupied instead of investing time into reading to them & playing games with them.

Kelly is in a year 1 class this year and the kids are baffled by a keyboard... they think it's a touch screen.
My grandkids are that far ahead of the other kids it's not funny.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-11/ ... /103446606


One third of Australian students are failing to learn to read proficiently, at an estimated cost to the economy of $40 billion, according to a new report.

The Grattan Institute's Reading Guarantee report calls this a "preventable tragedy" caused by persisting with teaching styles popular at universities, but "contrary to science" and discredited by inquiries in all major English-speaking countries.

Parents have to blame someone else. It can't be their responsibility.

What a joke.

[What'sinaname]

Well the left influenced woke curriculum is more interested in gender identity, pronouns and teaching white kids to be guilty.

[stui magpie]

Part of the problem is they keep pissing around with the way they teach kids to read. Everyone learns differently so no method will work for everyone but FFS pick and stick.

Most grandparents reading to kids will try to help them read with phonics (ie, sounding out the word) but if they don't teach that method in school it just confuses the kid.

My Grandson is 8. He was well behind when he arrived at my Daughters, he's catching up but I could read better at 6 than he can at 8.

And it's not just ipads, it's screens. The number of mothers I see out with the kids just handing their phone over to the toddler to shut them up while mum drinks her coffee and gasbags is unreal.

[What'sinaname]

Educators are like management consultants. They seem to have created an industry of convincing people change is necessary. I agree with the pick and stick.

[pietillidie]

Much more time from parents and extended family, and much less time on screens. This is another good way to blow the wealth gap out, because it's also a situation where good personal tutors and additional programs can help overcome a lack of parental input.

[pietillidie]

Educators are like management consultants. They seem to have created an industry of convincing people change is necessary. I agree with the pick and stick.

Absolutely no one in any successful business anywhere thinks change is unnecessary, whether they use management consultants or not, so I'm not sure that's a winning analogy.

[What'sinaname]

I’ve seen it all. Whether it’s McKinsey, BCG, Anderson, Accenture, I’ve seen consultants come in with glossy paper spruiking change - whether it’s IT, new desk configurations, HR, whatever.

Squillions wasted that could have been spent bringing in more good people to help the ones actually doing the work.

[What'sinaname]

Same with teaching. Spend nothing on change for 10 years but put that money into more teachers and better paid teachers. Then evaluate which strategy led to better outcomes.

[Magpietothemax]

Employ enough teachers on decent wages, employ enough learning support staff to support the teachers, employ enough psychologists in the schools to deal with all the issues of psychological and emotional trauma driven by heightened levels of economic distress, equip the school libraries with enough resources to excite and engage children, and you would be able to teach reading whatever f**!!ing method you used.
These pedagogical debates are simply a smokescreen to conceal the fact that all governments, state and federal alike, are systematically degrading public education to pay for nuclear submarines, hypersonic missiles, and tax breaks for the wealthy elite.

[Skids]

Employ enough teachers on decent wages, employ enough learning support staff to support the teachers, employ enough psychologists in the schools to deal with all the issues of psychological and emotional trauma driven by heightened levels of economic distress, equip the school libraries with enough resources to excite and engage children, and you would be able to teach reading whatever f**!!ing method you used.
These pedagogical debates are simply a smokescreen to conceal the fact that all governments, state and federal alike, are systematically degrading public education to pay for nuclear submarines, hypersonic missiles, and tax breaks for the wealthy elite.

Kelly was running a reading class before school, 20 kids and was getting excellent results.
The funding for that was cut 2 years ago.

Schools are employing multiple 'special need's' EA's, to supervise kids individually with all sorts of issues. Some of these kids shouldn't be in main stream schools, yet the funding to keep them there is massive.

Kelly was paid an extra .5/day per week to improve the reading skills of 20 odd kids... and that funding gets cut

[stui magpie]

^

The WA state government is rolling in cash like a pig in mud, WTF is the logic in cutting stuff like that? You have a 3rd world public health system while the government has enough cash to give everyone gold fillings in their teeth.

[pietillidie]

^And no one will be accountable for cutting what is an obvious investment in the future. It's far too easy for governments to cut future benefits today without repurcussions. No serious investor misuses money like we do in news cycle politics.

It's basic economics taught every single day. Every decision has a value based on its expected future value, and the difference between its expected future value and alternative investments, aka opportunity cost.

Here we are trying to teach kids to think through consequences, and we have zero accountability for future value and opportunity cost. It's basic economics, basic investment and finance and basic accounting. But barely a whimper or outcry anywhere until it's too late, as if yesterday's rubbish decisions should just be forgiven without consequence.

This is one of my pet topics, because time and again bad decisions are made without due risk management (which is always pretty much about calculating future value), and there are zero consequences. Zero consequences for not hedging against global warming. Zero consequences for invading a distant nation you know eff all about. Zero consequences for not taking the medicine by increasing urban density, driving up the infrastructure and social costs of urban sprawl. Zero consequences for [name your poorly costed and risk-managed investment or lack of investment here].

Every big mouth, grifter, hysteria merchant and scumbag under the sun seems seems to avoid accountability. Doctors, engineers, accountants, drivers, builders, etc. make sloppy mistakes and they face real consequences, whether directly through professional standards, regulations and laws, or indirectly through insurance premiums. Yet someone cuts a crucial programme to move money to some slimy or useless pocket to win dumb votes, or promulgates some idiotic conspiracy theory or denialism, and faces absolutely no consequences or penalties for being wrong. Often deadly wrong.

Again and again, daily. Even bad drivers face consequences, FFS. But bad policy makers? Go for your life.

It's a massive flaw in how we run government; major long-term decisions just can't be tied to electoral cycles, as if their consequences start and end every few years. It's completely idiotic and not how anything serious in life works. No one except for the destitute and unfortunate approach assets that way, yet we do it again and again across dozens of decisions weekly in politics.

We have to find a way to bring some accountability to future value calculations. And Australia is doing better than the halfwits over here, believe me. It doesn't mean mistakes won't be made, but a 10% improvement, as I keep saying, is worth a small fortune.

[Skids]

Ain't that the truth.

Just to make it even more remarkable. When I dropped Kelly off yesterday, she pointed out a new 'waterwall' that had been installed in the pre-primary play area. A small frame, about 1.2m high x 1.2m.wide concreted into the ground. The frame has a maze of pvc pipe hanging from it that kids pour water into.

The price tag.... $6000!
I could knock one up for under $600. The mind boggles.