"When I was a kid, parents feared the phone call from the school, and today schools fear the phone call from the parents"

This is so incredibly and so unfortunately true. Things have changed so much in the schools over the years. Could the pendulum swing back just a little, so we could have a better balance between school authority and parental authority? It would certainly improve the learning environment.

If we were so successful, why are those former students who are now the parents not more supportive of the schools? We used to have jobs for HS dropouts. Our unions would take students into the trades and mentor them straight out of HS. Everyone did not need a regents diploma to be successful. Before the 60's, dropout rates weren't recorded. So how do we even begin to compare?
When my mother was in HS, during WWII, schools were essentially segregated. In her HS yearbook I noticed about a dozen not of European descent. Have you read the short piece, "The Meaning of Algebra"? It is about the systematic tracking that occurred based on ethnicity.
So how is the past better? For whom was it better?
It is too easy to remember a past that never existed.

This is very insightful could you elaborate more on the text you're referencing. This would be a great topic for discussion if you're up for developing it.

The last significant increase in literacy came in the 60's-70's which was the last time that early reading programs were phonics based. Another factor to the spike was the role that higher quality spelling instruction played (moves form phonemic based instruction to rule based instruction to morphographic based instruction). Spelling skills enhance reading skills. Both of these factors were routine in most schools back then.

For the past 25 years, spelling has been taught as a visual task with students learning lists of high frequency words (research indicates it's a phonological task and should be incorporated with phonologically based reading instruction). With the exception of some Reading First Schools and a small minority of districts, sight word reading instruction still predominates, although the name has been changed from whole language to balanced literacy.

After 25 years of ineffective spelling and reading instruction, is it any surprise that in states like Ohio only 39% of the 8th graders read at a proficient level (below indicates lack of reading skills to navigate through modern life including newspaper reading.) Kids to go all lengths to hide their poor reading. Go to www.childrenofthecode.org/Tour/c3c/shame.htm and watch the video clip on "shame." Last week I talked on stage for 5 minutes in between a rap group and a heavy metal band to a group of teens about "dyslexia" and reading problems at a community event. Other adults had been ignored so I decided to focus on the shame that 3 -4 out of every 10 of them felt about their poor reading skills and how the instruction in their schools had contributed to it. I ended up getting thunderous applause at the end and head nodding to beat the band.

Hi Mary,

do you mind if I post this video to the group?