Part one of a series

In college while studying journalism I was told ad nauseam to write at a sixth grade level because most Americans read at that level. I was disappointed by this reality but did not question it at the time because of my focus on my school work and graduating. More recently I have heard that most news media presents information at a third grade level. What the hell!

How literacy is measured has changed over the years so trying to compare 1908 to 2018 statistics is difficult if not impossible. One reason is the the percentage of people who attend k-12 schools today is much high than it was in 1908. We can anecdotally say that the reading level in the United States has dropped, but how far and to what level we cannot truly surmise. One thing that tells us much about current reading levels are the particular kinds of books that are available in elementary, middle school, high school, and public libraries. Annie Holmquist of Intellectual Takeout wrote an enlightening article in 2016 about the differences between the current reading list of the Edina Minnesota School District and a “list from the 1908 curriculum manual in the Minnesota Historical Society archives.”

With the disparity in quality and time being so stark we should choose to take the advice of C. S. Lewis, author of the Chronicles of Narnia, “he maintained, to read one old book for every new one or if that’s too much, then one old one for every three new ones. Otherwise, we may be easily enslaved to the ideas of the recent past.” He made this remark when referring to“Chronological Snobbery.”

Our fortieth President Ronald Reagan tells the story of how he learned to read to Tom Brokaw. He remembers his mother, Nell, reading to him and his bother every night. While doing so she used her finger as a guide while reading. When he was five years old he was laying on the living room floor with the local newspaper in front of him when his father entered the room he was asked what was he doing. He replied reading the paper. His father not believing him asked him to read an article and he read it with out hesitation. His dad then called on the neighbors to have Ron read to them. Two things happened hear that seldom I hear happening; a mother reading regularly to her children and a father praising his child when they have accomplished something great. Mrs. Reagan’s example of use her finger as a guide was key for Ronnie to make those connections between the sound he heard and the letters represented by those sounds. That is phoneme awareness which we now know according to Dr. Diane McGuinness, author of “Why our Children Can’t Read and What We Can Do About It.” 1997, is the first component of learning how to read.

Alexander Hamilton is another example of and early reader. He can be credited for this because of being tutored by his parents and a paid tutor. I mention this because it was the expectation the children should learn to read as so as possible so that they could read the Bible for themselves. This was done ever since the Reformation as a way to prevent authorities from lying and withholding the truth. The same can be said for today. The sooner a person learns to read the less likely they are to be taken advantage of and manipulated. This is a task parents have abdicated to the government. Be warned the administrators of the education departments at colleges and universities and your local superintendent do not have the best interests of your child in mind when they make rules and push curriculum. Education is about two things, money and power, which they will never admit verbally, but their actions prove it.

The amount of information on the internet on how to properly teach your children to read is enormous. And almost all of it should be ignored. The simplest way to start your children on the path to reading is to chose good books, with few pictures. And, to read to your kids with your finger as your guide. I offer no apologies to Jiminy Cricket for the rephrasing of his catch phrase “Let your conscience be your guide.”