Recover Basic Skills and Practice!
(Originally posted elsewhere on 10/13/2012) Remember the 3 R's—Reading, Writing, 'Rithmetic? When I started school, they were still important; in fact, somewhere along the way I learned, “ School days, school days, those were Golden Rule days; reading and writing and 'rithmetic, taught to the tune of a hick'ry stick .” The song goes on to recall a childhood romance, but it captured the essence of good, basic education — learning to read , based on phonics, which enabled readers to match written words to words they already used in conversation, but progressing to comprehension; then learning to write , which included spelling which was much easier after learning the rules of phonics, then grammar, and finally essays; and to do math --adding, subtracting, times tables, multiplying, dividing, fractions, decimals, and percentage s. No student should move on until these basics have been mastered—no technology needed or allowed ! Parents and teachers should recognize th