I find that when I read a novel I truly enjoy, I get a greater understanding of the piece if I learn about the writer. I've loved looking over Philip Pullman's http://www.philip-pullman.com/index.asp While browsing his site, I found a copy of a speech I'd read previously called The Isis Speech.
On April 1, 2003, he gave a wonderful speech about the education children in the areas of reading and writing. The http://www.philip-pullman.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=66 brings to light much of what many teachers feel is wrong about education.
I completely agree with Philip Pullman here. I live in the Netherlands, but we have the same problems with education: not enough teachers, too many subjects and not enough time to really get into each subject.
Well, I'll add a link to Pullman's article http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,5500,1052077,00.html where he discusses literacy in school.
And I'd like to add he's right. I met this most amazing teacher, http://www.fireflybooks.com/Kids/Shakespeare.html, who had her Grade Two children reading and writing about Shakespeare. She's even published books about this and done lectures around the world. But our Ministry of Education, rather than seek out her advice, actually made it difficult for her to teach in her own manner because it wasn't the new system that they were imposing on all teachers. This, even though the test scores of her pupils were among the highest in the province. Sadly, she has retired from teaching, but is devoted to promoting the teaching of Shakespeare in the classroom.
I agree with everything he said. I have a lot of respect for Philip Pullman, particularly when he starts talking about education. I think, though, that I've been luckier than most, because when I lived in Brazil, my parents could afford to send me to a school that reflects many of the things he said.
My classes, for example, never had more than 20 students. The smallest it ever was was 15, I think. And the sense of unity we could get as a group was great. Not everyone liked each other, of course (the class was usually arranged by small groups that would work together on certain tasks, usually to put together a presentation of some sort), but everyone knew one another well enough to work together, even if they weren't particularly pleased about it.
We were always encouraged to read things for ourselves and to write a lot, but were never pressured to write in a particular way. In a sense, we were always allowed to find out for ourselves what worked and what didn't and if we wanted to read it out to the class when we had to hand it in, we were welcome to do it. And the teachers were always open, would joke around with us and were free to try different things and find different ways to motivate us. When they didn't have time for something, they would team up with other teachers and combine their lessons, linking two different subjects together.
My experience of education here in England wasn't very good, though. The classes were too big, the teachers looked exhausted, desperate or simply bored. Neither they, nor the students wanted to be there and the motivation to get anything done was not good. Plus, we were being force fed information all day. Just writing down information, repeating soundbytes and preparing for the exam. The result is that I can't remember much from those lessons any more. And as we got closer to our GCSEs, it became clear that it was all about targets. The students that were likely to get a good mark were treated wonderfully by the hierarchy within the school, and were being handpicked to continue at the school for A levels. Those who weren't likely to do well, or who had chosen to leave were ignored. It was all about league tables - from what I know, the school was expected to be better than usual.
Then, I saw my stepsister doing her SATs, and being forced to learn the times table up to fifteen for her exams. For homework, she was meant to keep writing it down and repeating it over and over, and to get her family to test her. A year on, she can't remember any of it. All her homework consisted of was filling in blanks.
I have also lost count of the amount of people I met who left school barely able to read (and know lots of people who are clearly dyslexic, their self esteem crippled, because their schools just never gave it a second thought).
This is getting a bit long, so I'll just finish with saying that the exams that students are made to go through are appaling, and the effort put into training for them is just not worth the effort. There is a generation of students who are growing up with very good skills for passing exams, but not enough for anything else that is valuable. So, everytime I hear Pullman talk on this subject, I applaud him. I just wish people in power would take more notice.
I think Mr. Pullman would greatly admire online forums like Leaky for encouraging students to read. Mark Twain said:
"The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them"
If it were not for Leaky, I would not know about banned books week, I would not have discovered all the great books people mentioned in the 'What are you reading?' thread, I would not have heard half of the classics mentioned around the board, and this book club is great! So thanks, Leaky staff and members.
I've always possessed the talent of reading well. I often, in school, wondered how others found material hard to read, when I could easily read it. I got placed top of reading test, and was often told that I need to slow down on my reading, even though I still comprehended it as much when I read what was a normal pace was for others. It must have been some natural ability I inherited, all my life I have been great at reading. But it wasn't until I discovered Harry Potter, and the Lounge, that I fell in love with reading, even if I was good or not. Before that, I wasted my life in front of the television, occasionally going to the library, more to fill up spare time than to actually enjoy reading.
I'm really shocked at my peers distaste for literature. I can only hope they find books like the Golden Compass, it really only takes the love of reading to be good at it, because you will practice it as you go. My English teacher is dyslexic, and I find her to be inspiring because she reads constantly and has mastered it. I hope we can put Pullman's guidelines into action.
About the forums (because I didn't comment on this in my other post). PP says something that I like a lot, which he calls the democracy of reading. He mentions it quite often in his talks (there is a wonderful video of a reading he made and some answers he gave to the audience that I can't find at the moment. If I do I'll be sure to post it, because hearing him do Iorek's voice is definitely worth it! lol) Here is what he says on his website:
Philip Pullman is right. I'm from Norway and work in a bookstore. Young people never go in to buy books, just pens, stamps and so on. Especially young boys. Some Norwegian teachers are not very good, but the fault also lies with the parents. It is not easy to teach a class with students that have no respect for adults what so ever and never gives a hoot about what you're saying, even if you're an excellent teacher.
My husband is from Shanghai, China and I have travelled in his country 4 times now. In China, teachers are among the most repected people and you'll find children and youths in bookstores everywhere, reading both Chinese and all sorts of Western books. Even though they have full internet acsess, they still want to learn and read. And the parents care, too. That's the difference.
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