Michael Rosen et al (Children must be free to read for pleasure, Letters, July 25) refused to recognize that while most children learn to read fluently by having a solid foundation in the principle alphabetical, also known as phonics, enjoy real books will increase. For 40 years, schools have been based on real books to teach children to read, but there was a race very regularly reluctant readers. Early exposure to simple stories, phonetically decodable ensure that most children are "reading" thing in Key Stage 1 and the freedom to read for pleasure since. We should not derail attempts by the government to integrate current and previous phonemes teaching in the early years. No child read for pleasure until they can read.
Margaret Ford
London
. Children who are able to generalize from the context, the method of "look and say" reading depends on the way to a good start with programs such as the Oxford Reading Tree. and find reading fun. Others find it difficult to generalize from the context: the words mean what they say - and nothing else . For them, phonetics is a great support in decoding the written word. Some children will be able to read that using phonics. This, of course, makes reading less "fun".
Christine Wood
Middleton Tyas , North Yorkshire
. The suggestion that the government's campaign to improve children's reading pleasure threat reading in primary schools is not supported by the evidence. Our policies are designed to ensure that children learn to read at the beginning of their school careers, so that they are able to develop a love of reading. Currently, 10 children leave primary school unable to read more than a child of seven years. International Studies rank England, 25 for reading - below the seventh nine years. Make sure that all children master the ability to decode words, pronounce new words is essential if we are to become confident readers. The check will phonetic ensure that no child slips through the net is still struggling with this basic skill.
course, children should learn in a rich linguistic environment, be read and offer the joys of books and literature. Develop a love of reading is a key objective of the proposed changes to primary school curricula. But if children are first taught the ability to translate a text into words the joy that comes from reading remain a closed world. Nick Gibb MP
Schools Minister
Our children begin formal education from five to seven years of European standard. Despite this advantage, 23% of 11-year-old can not reach their literacy goals. This figure is typical of the Anglo-Saxon world, so I can not be blamed entirely on teaching techniques. The acquisition of literacy in English can take up to three times more than our European competitors, hence the need for an early start. We have a cohort playback performance chronic low: one fifth of the population have a reading age of 13 or less - double that of Germany
A big culprit is our old and irregular writing that virtually guarantees the failure of literacy. Although this is the case, we will continue to search in vain and spend a fortune looking for ways elusive goals of mass literacy and children who read for pleasure.
About half of the students in high school in Wisconsin are pioneers gay, many of them deserters from general education. But this is just a new form of sexual segregation?
In the first class of the Alliance High School in Milwaukee, the best student - the most outstanding student of the year - scored a D + "They were smart," recalls Tina Owen, founder of the school management and teachers. "But many of them did not go to school because they have been bullied, and many of them had problems at home. This year we had 15 children. Five of them had lived with me at some point during the year, for one reason or another. "
Alliance is not an ordinary school. It aims to serve a community that is, at best, and in the worst case, we have vigorously denied their existence - young gays and lesbians. Call it a gay school and will be corrected immediately. No admission criteria on the basis of sexual orientation or anything else. The school building, a modest brick building set back from the main road, no rainbow flags fly or adorn their walls with posters of pink triangles. Owen conjectures about half of the students LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender). "If you're gay, not much," she said. "Otherwise, not much."
But the school, which is funded by the State of Wisconsin, is self-openly gay-friendly. "Here we can speak of a relationship or a break without having to worry about how it will be received," says Owen. The Prom prom king and queen posts are open to anyone to ask, regardless of gender. A mural at the entrance bears the words "knowledge, respect, peace," and a sign that says Stonewall Inn. It is a small school - only 165 students - where everybody knows your name. Accommodate more riders than the regular rate of children with medium length hair or nail polish. Total rises to a critical mass of children who say they felt they did not fit elsewhere - if goths, punks and nerds - this being a non-conformist in the Alliance standard. Professor of art school to school affectionately Time magazine described as "the island of misfit toys."
At a time when sexual diversity has never been accepted in the United States, the emergence of these schools - there are around the country - seems paradoxical. "What does it say about our country that we have schools like that?" request Ritch Savin-Williams, professor of developmental psychology at Cornell University and author of The New Gay Teenager. They have been criticized by social conservatives, religious groups and other members of the gay community.
Owen admits that he is not to everyone's taste. A boy called home after his first day and I said, "Dad, get me out of here, these children are monsters."
But for others it is literally a lifesaver. Long hair Huegerich Dylan and the occasional use of makeup made him the frequent subject of ridicule at school in the small town of Saukville where he grew up. "It hurts so much," he said. "I hated my life. Hated it. When his mother complained to school were told to cut their hair and try to act" more human. " Every morning she told Time, "I knew I was coming back to this place, where he was wounded. Oh, you've come? Here go again. My heart broke every time you are out. "
She decided not to enroll in the eighth grade. "I felt as if I had turned in these forms, I gave a sort of judgment." So I went to the Alliance, 90 minutes by car.
The school, founded in 2005, was modeled on the Manhattan High School Harvey Milk, who was named in honor of the San Francisco gay activist whose end was the story basis for the award-winning film Milk, and became fully accredited in 2002. It began as a high school (ages 14-18), extended to middle school children (11-14) too, and it is now on the verge of become just a new school.
Freytes Michael, 17, who is straight, like Alliance because they feel judged. "When I was in college I was bullied a lot. I tried to fit in, but I could not. But if there is a problem such as the Alliance of the other students can not tolerate and teachers take care of it. " Students solve conflicts through what they call "restorative justice", but a "circle of justice", governed by students, who Freytes said "try to understand the problem and fix it without things getting out of Control. "
The main justification for the existence of schools such as the Alliance's security -. An institutional response to the widespread intimidation experienced by LGBT youth and other current
The problem is serious. A survey conducted in 2009 by the Education Network Gay, Lesbian and Straight (GLSEN) found that 9 out of 10 LGBT students said they had been victims of harassment or intimidation. Nearly two-thirds said they felt unsafe at school, while one in five said they had been physically assaulted. A 2007 study found that 39% reported physical abuse, and those who told teachers or administrators of bullying, only 29% said it led to an effective response. The 2009 survey also revealed that the frequency with which LGBT students experienced the most severe forms of bullying and harassment have remained stable over the past decade.
last winter, 14 years, Kenneth Weishuhn committed suicide after leaving school Iowa. Anonymous threats on his voice box was followed by shouts and physical harassment was so bad teachers had to stand guard in the hallway. Kenneth finally hanged himself in the garage of his parents.
Even when parents are not willing to accept that their children are gay, says Owen, who understand the need to put their children in a warm atmosphere. "They want their children to be safe. They want to know that your child will not spit up or just to be who they are."
attitudes towards homosexuality changed dramatically in the United States, even in Midwestern states like Wisconsin, and even if gay marriage was never put to the vote at the state level, a failure. President Obama recently came out in favor of gay marriage, which is legal in six states and Washington, DC, covering 12% of the country. According to Gallup, now nearly two-thirds of the population in the United States believe that gays and lesbians relationships should be legal, against less than half in 1977.
Today, more than half (54%) believe that homosexuality is morally acceptable, compared to 40% in 1977. And those most likely to be comfortable with homosexuality as a fact of life that should enjoy the same rights and protection of young people.
Not surprisingly, the Conservatives are not in love with this trend or an educational response. The President of the Conservative Party of New York, Michael Long, said the creation of the Harvey Milk School was social engineering. "Is there another way to teach homosexuals? There gay math? ... This is wrong no reason that children should be treated separately."
however, are often treated differently, and Chad Weiden, who led the efforts to establish a gay-friendly school in Chicago, said that part of the responsibility for education is sometimes cause Summary of problems accessible to students. "It is all about what is relevant for children. If you do mathematical probability, could illustrate GLBT suicide watch or stop-and-palpation or unemployment. A good program will also cover the policy issues of sex, like evolution, biodiversity, anthropology, history and literature. This should be true for the whole school, not just one that is considered gay-friendly ".
But conservatives behind these attacks are two general motivations. The first, based on the idea that homosexuality is wrong is that any mention of homosexuality "normalize" gay identity, and could encourage impressionable youth to be gay, which otherwise would not .
"What is this girl who is a virgin, who is being harassed by lesbians and guys to have sex, yet you are going to build a school gay?" Chicago, a minister, Wilfredo De Jesus, asked the Chicago Journal. "It's not fair."
such charges, says Savin-Williams, are absurd. "There is absolutely no evidence that children of gay or straight can be created in this way, not to mention the conversion. L 'idiot."
Some prefer that gay youth have seen or heard. A network of clubs Gay-Straight Alliance have appeared in American schools to provide the same support group for gays and lesbians students. However, its appearance has often been questioned by school authorities and conservative parents, forcing students to court to defend their right to freedom of association, as happened last year in West Bend, Wisconsin, just 45 minutes up the Alliance.
The law requires efforts to recognize sexual diversity "push gay agenda." Weiden when trying to establish his school, the Conservatives tried to provoke them by saying that the promotion of homosexual lifestyles. "We are running bullfighting.." Say it, say it, you will teach homosexual lifestyles "reportedly said:" I'm gay, gay children will be, it will be the largest school in the City of fire "But we were not going to say .."
The second motivation, however, is rooted in a belief that adolescents most common gays and pre-teens are simply unable to understand and label their sexual orientation, it's like being a gothic punk or nerd, it may be a phase through which they passed. In part, this is in most parents have anxiety about sexuality from adolescence to expand.
But there is also a function of consciousness associate being gay with an active sex life, and the celebration of the homosexual identity to a different level for heterosexuals. At 12 years old, who express an interest in girls or vice versa stealth cause little concern. Indeed, the question of their righteousness even approached. At 12 years old, who is attracted to other boys, however, do not have that luxury. Because gender identity liquid course there the possibility that preferences may change. But it is no less true for the gay guy straight. And, most likely, whatever sex you are attracted to, so it may still be waiting for her first kiss.
"Nobody says [a preteen teenager directly or]: 'Are you sure you're too young to know if you like girls probably just a phase?". Eileen Ross, Director of the exit program, a support service for young homosexuals in California told the New York Times. "But this is what is said too often young gays. Deprived us of their feelings and truth in a way that never would a heterosexual young." In previous generations, young people have to wait to leave the university. Now the courage to go to the middle or high school - at a time and in a place characterized by teasing, bullying, sexual exploration and hormonal turbulence. "Children are certainly before, and the college is undoubtedly the worst time to intimidate, if you're straight or gay," says Savin-Williams. There are several summer camps across the country, serving transgender children from the age of eight years.
A unique educational institution has created a program tailored to the needs of children of nomadic herders in the African country of Burkina Faso
Salou
Bandé is proud to be at the head of the only class Bénnogo village, 90 km north of the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, sharing knowledge with their students. It is part of an initiative to improve the education of Traveller children in the West African country.
Bendy
slender building that stands out as a member of the nomadic Fulani people, and was one of the first professors of the School of the Shepherds. This innovative educational institution takes between 20 and 25 students per year, more precisely to 12 years who have never attended formal school.
"We started with a drive Fulfulde [local language] on malaria, then continue with the lessons of history, geography, French, and earth and life sciences - This includes increasing animal health, the environment and health, "said IPS Bandé.
Bande said he had 18 students in his class, including 11 girls. "They study the Basic Course 2nd year [the third year of primary school], then an examination administered by the provincial department of basic education enables students to participate in the formal school system. Our first group is now in its fifth year of high school. "There are 300 students attending school in the area.
According Boubacar Barry, director of the training program of the association for the promotion of livestock in the Sahel and savanna (APESS), put the children to formal school has a strong impact in Media pastoral subsistence of a family.
working with the Ministry of education and literacy in the north, where the pastors who represent 17% of the population, and Andal Pindal - a local organization that has played a role in the establishment of the school pastors - conducted a study in 2003 showed that less than 1% of children herdsmen "were enrolled in school
Special School held its first classes in the same year, the reception of students between nine and 15 years in six counties in the northern province of Sanmantenga. Of the 197 first-year students who completed the 144 four-year cycle and sat for a final exam.
This year, according to Mamadou Boly, a retired inspector of primary education and Andal and Pindal president (whose name means "knowledge and enlightenment" in Fulfulde), School of pastors one success rate of 85%, and nearly two-thirds of the students went straight to the CM2, last year of primary school. Several went to high school and vocational training centers. "We thought we were training children stockyards, but these children have abandoned their settlements and to conquer the world, "says Boly.
He said the school was born out of concern for people in the communities of shepherds. "Those who had been to school, and they realized that their community is not progressing"
Moussa Diallo, president of the parents of the school, enrolled her son and daughter in Bénnogo. "We realized that there was no place for livestock and agriculture, in order to succeed in these areas, the knowledge that is necessary," he said. "We can see the difference with those did not go to school. "
Boly agreed. "The kids say they do not want to go to formal school, but it is essential. So we made the standard program focusing on grazing on the land and life sciences, health and hygiene, "said. "It is the management of time and space is different. Always it is the community that decides when each school opens and closes. When students leave early, can water the animals and help their parents. " In addition, the school is open from May to December, leaving students free to participate in the annual migration of herds in search of pasture.
With school Bénnogo well established, classes were opened in six villages in the region. Support from the Ministry of Education and other international partners means that 15 schools are scheduled to open in the 2012-13 school year in the eastern and south-central, where literacy rates and schooling are lowest. "The relevance of the work of Andal and Pindal lies in its focus on a very specific group to be educated in their real context, if we provide an adequate education that meets the needs of the intended beneficiaries" Rémy said Abu, Director General of basic education and non-formal education in the ministry. His department has helped develop programs and materials with association learning.
Troubled families tsar Louise Casey was responsible for turning around the lives of 120,000 most dysfunctional for 2015
a report to the most troubled families in England has painted a grim picture of sexual violence and welfare dependency generations will.
violence in many homes is "cycles set of problems and causes problems" endemic fish and whole social networks.
The assessment takes time to trouble David Cameron Casey families tsar Louise -. Who was responsible for turning around the lives of 120,000 most dysfunctional for 2015
Casey made more than a dozen in-depth interviews to produce a report on the challenge side of the government.
She noted that the experiments were often handed down from generation to generation, and the failure of domestic and sexual violence, teenage pregnancy, outputs police calls and school.
"The prevalence of physical and sexual abuse and rape of children is surprising and shocking," said the report.
"It became clear that many of these families, maltreatment by many parents, brothers, sisters, half-brothers and other relatives and friends was a factor in their failure.
"Some people argue that if, as expected, and almost only a portion of what they had experienced in life. Often children are not protected by their parents.
"In many families of sexual abuse was repeated in the next generation ... There have also been incidents where families have talked about the incest."
Other common topics include
those with very young children, and many of them -. Often with different partners Report
face supported the interrelated issues of a family, rather than solve individual or individuals within a household. Casey said: "I do not apologize for all the family not to send their children to school or cause problems in your community, however, unless you really understand what it means, c ' is that these families behave this way, not begin. change their lives.
"The conduct of these interviews was a revelatory experience -. Hear first hand about the lives of these families lead and heritage issues has often been handed to them
"It is clearer than ever to me now that we can not continue to allow families struggling to keep their children or parents, I spoke with wanted their children to repeat a life chaos and problems, but often they could not see how to arrange things for themselves - they need practical help and continued to do so "
Charlie Taylor, the tsarist government appreciated performance, says the value of the state-sponsored lessons for parents
government recently announced that it was testing a system that parents of children under five years could appear in your local health center (or, indeed, Boots) and collect a good £ 100 the value of free parenting classes caused quite a stir.
Surely, said that those who like to comment on this kind of thing is the very definition of the welfare state. We managed perfectly well so far without the government telling us how to educate our children why we need your help now?
Charlie Taylor
not develop the plan, he is careful to point out. But he believes it's worth a try - and believes government can play a constructive role in the number of children. Although you might think that, of course: the coalition behavior tsar
Taylor, a former Eton taught all age groups from toddlers to 16 years and was popular specialist in the treatment of restless children for over a decade. In 2005, he became head of The Willows, a famous West London special school for excluded under age 11, received his first outstanding Ofsted judgment within one year of appointment
The father of six, eight and a maximum of 11 years (all, I hope, impeccably polite), has also written two books designed to help parents of children with problems. In recent months, his name has been associated with a number of initiatives and discipline - including suggestions that the fines be deducted absenteeism benefits for children and young children with severe behavioral problems may benefit from using only two experts
Parenting
these days, Taylor believes, is one. Much more complicated than it once was, "I'm not," he said, "to support the idea that" everything is deteriorating. "But the pressure, I think, are getting worse. The great challenge is to teach children discernment. Just have not worked out how to deal with this overload
things
Take
screens. "When we were kids," he said (he is 47), "children's television was from 3.30 to 5.30, and that was all. Today is the day in a half dozen different channels children. Then there are mobile phones, game consoles, Internet. Children can spend all day on the screens. "This was combined with a flood of advertising to children" to make the energy worrying more powerful than was the case. And more working mothers now, so no more guilt. "
The State clearly has more right to "get stuck in" what Taylor terms "the hard end of the spectrum: social services, the protection of the child." But overall paternity " is a complex issue, and people need help and not live in homes with grandparents. 'S People are not always there ... It may be useful to get help and advice. "
be interesting, he said, to see how parents react to parenting classes offer, what kind of parents who assume. Schools and also how to answer: "Most teachers feel compelled to do most of the pastoral work, pastoral extreme than in the past." In general, points out, "are happy to do, but it can be frustrating when it gets in the way of his work, primary education and sometimes it can feel like the covenant that existed between families and schools - .. L'' If you have problems at school, the sky t 'help' - broke
"Schools need to see how they interact with parents. 'S hard when there is an abyss. However, as a basic principle, parents must accept the authority of the school."
But what could make parenting classes? "In the most extreme cases," admits Taylor, "parenting classes could not help anyway. And when the child reaches 13 or 14 years, things are a bit stuck. But between zero and five years, most parents have the ability to change. "
In what sense? "These values," says Taylor. "No State shall establish that these values ??should be .. do not want to go at all, but to ask the parents what their values ??and see the best way to implement it is the parents preparing advance the questions that arise. Being able to say what is trivial and what is important. "
and these values ??can be? "Basic good manners, respect. Understanding other people's feelings and reactions honesty Punctuality Reliability Determination ....." From there, fatherhood is "working on how to translate these values ??to things like screens and ominous, the practice of engineering. And develop strategies that work well. " Taylor spent much of the last year talking to managers waiting on the fundamental principles that had continued to improve behavior, but published them in a series of checklists Getting well known behavior of simple things, and are not calculated different start successful parents.
