I believe that is one of the Montessori teaching method. Despite my high school English teachers being liberals, they employed this and beside the books needed for IP testings / state requirements, they gave students a pool of books to choose from to read and do books reports. An illusion of choice, yes, but was effective nevertheless, as I could just ditch a book I find unappealing after page 10.
Having volunteered in a public school when my daughter was in the early ages, I can readily say
1). Not all of the children having reading were native speakers of a language other than English
2). I don’t expect new immigrants to speak fluent English, but their children tend to absorb it rapidly
3). I’m not blaming public schools for children not being able to read when a number of the first graders I volunteered with were reading at an advanced level.
They were reading at this level most likely because their parents prioritized reading to them from an early age, as I did to my daughter.
Massachusetts has a variety of immigrants from a variety of different countries—here legally and otherwise.
As shown by the statistics in these articles, a minority of the population is illiterate in even the poorest regions. And kids—Spanish or whatever speaking when they arrive—tend to rapidly pick up English from their peers.
From what I’ve seen of Latin Americans, they want to learn. There’s an online game called, in the U S, “Trivia Crack”. Why is knowledge of geography, history, science, literature and other art forms someone should have halfway through high school “trivia”?
In Spanish the game is called “Preguntas”, in Portuguese “Perguntas”, or “questions”. Maybe there are functional illiterates in the U S because many don’t value learning. Couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve heard those who took the time to get a formal education put down as “lacking common sense”, and those insulting wouldn’t know “common sense” if it kicked their heads out of their rear ends.
Kids absorb from their parents more than anyone. I’m willing to bet those who aren’t even literate at the 8th grade level and don’t read books—digital, or in their original form—have parents who don’t read and never read to them.
There are way too many people who want cutesy wootsy babies but don’t actually want to BE parents.
Seven-in-ten (70%) Hispanic students speak a language other than English at home.
Almost 30% of Hispanic public school students report speaking only English at home, and an additional 52% of Hispanic public school students report speaking English “very well.” The remaining 18% of Hispanic students speak English with difficulty.4
Nearly half (44%) of first-generation students speak English with difficulty, compared with 20% of second-generation students and 5% of the third-and-higher generations.5
Gee, that’s funny! I thought to pass the U S Citizenship Exam, English proficiency was required unless the one taking the exam was over 60.
There are voting sites in parts close to Boston marked in Vietnamese and Chinese dialects. Now, are those limited and non English speakers responsible for illiterate native borns?
That’s because there is a direct correlation between non-English speakers in our schools and communities who feel so entitled as to vote in our elections.
Think about it, why should kids learn how to read proper english when the schools allows the kids to get away with sentences like " Hi How RU" “wat is the 411 of dat person” or if you’re on any dating sites you see messages like " I like UR profile, wuld U like 2 cht l8tr"
Leftists loves to communicate like that, I feel for the parents who actually takes the time to read to their kids or encourages their kids to read more often, many times they feel frustration because they feel like they are fighting a losing battle.