Moral panic again hits Australia as PISA results show that
in Australia, and particularly Tasmania, our literacy standards are slipping
compared to the rest of the world. The newspapers all but scream “Our schools
are failing our children”.
So it was with some interest that the first issue of New
Scientist (16/11/2013) I received of my new subscription contained the article,
Too much too young. In that article
David Whitehead and Sue Bingham point out that, contrary to the received wisdom
in the English speaking world, children who go to school at 5 perform worse
than those who enter formal education at 7.
Research consistently shows that, in the long term, those
children who undergo early formal literacy training compared to those who do
not, gain no advantage. Quite the
contrary:
“However
those who started at 5 showed less positive attitude to reading and showed
poorer text comprehension than those who started later”. p 29
We of the CBCA are not focused on literacy but are focused
on children enjoying and reading quality literature that gives pleasure. It
should, for them as it did for me, give them experience of real and imaginary
worlds contained within that literature. For this enjoyment, literacy is a
necessary condition but by no means sufficient. It seems a single minded
pursuit of literacy is inimical to this aim.
We would be better investing in and promoting public
library use and reinstating school libraries as the heart of the school.
Richard Pickup
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