Teach
Them to Read,
And Let 'Em Rip!
by
Patricia Neill
 It
never ceases to amaze me that most all of my heroes (and I have
many) have one great thing in common: they are self-educated men
and women, and they never stopped learning. Usually they
were taught to read when young, some went through formal training
at schools, a few attended colleges – but all of them at one time
or another were voracious consumers of books.
George
Mason, for instance, received little formal schooling, but was lucky
enough to be turned loose in the 1,500 volume library of his uncle
John Mercer. (At that time, books were scarce and many families
only owned a Bible, if that – 1,500 books was a treasure trove!)
Or Benjamin Disraeli – he read his way through his father’s
library and that was his education. Whatever I might think of his
politics (or his atrocious novels), he was an intelligent and witty
man. Thomas Paine, the finest writer of our Revolution, educated
himself – read his Common Sense today, and witness his sharp,
clear prose and stirring phrases. Thomas Jefferson was formally
educated, attending William and Mary College, but if ever a man
educated himself, and continually at that, it was Jefferson. Patrick
Henry received his education from his father – but read far
and wide.
Ben
Franklin was sent to school by his father, who wanted his son to
be a minister, and Ben easily mastered reading and writing. Strangely
enough, like Einstein flunking his mathematics exams, Ben couldn’t
grasp arithmetic and so was let go from the school. America lost
a minister (which is probably a good thing, since he had an eye
for the ladies), but that didn’t stop this original American from
becoming an inventor, a scientist, a printer, a writer, a humorist,
and masterful American statesman in a time of astounding political
thinkers. Frederick Douglass was taught his letters as a slave,
but taught himself to write and became one of the foremost orators
of his day. H.L. Mencken was conventionally educated, although it
sure didn’t harm him any – besides all of his prodigious journalistic
writings, he also wrote those wonderful books on American language.
And
this, it seems to me, is the solution to what is called "public
education," one of the saddest jokes of our time. It isn’t
hard to teach children to read, nor is it difficult to instill in
them a love of reading. My father, not trained as a teacher, and
a very impatient man, taught me to read with great ease, probably
using phonics. Mothers and fathers teach children to read all the
time. I honestly don’t see how people can fail in teaching children
to read, but they sure do in the public schools.
Look
at the successes of home-schooled children. They can actually spell.
They can actually read, and no doubt at levels far beyond the paltry
levels achieved (or not) in the public schools. Private school children
do well too. Frankly, it simply is not such a difficult proposition – in
fact, it is easy.
But
public school children are not even taught to read! At huge taxpayer
expense they are taught to look at words and guess what they mean.
Can you imagine anything more inane than that? Yo! Public School
Teacher – look at this word and guess what it means: STUPID. It isn’t
that these children are intellectually deficient – but they are kept
ignorant, and it sure looks to me like it is entirely deliberate.
Or maybe not. From what I’ve read of the huge numbers of teachers
who can barely pass their teacher exams, perhaps they can’t
read either.
So
here’s what we do: step one, teach the kids to read. Step two, set
'em loose in libraries. My guess is the quality of real education
would go up by 75%, if not higher! And the children might even be
able to spell, and speak complete grammatical sentences without
a single use of the word "like," unlike most college students
today.
We
might even end up with another crop of self-taught geniuses!
June
8,
2000
Patricia Neill is managing editor of a scholarly journal on the
life and work of William Blake, the 18th-century artist
and poet.
© 2000 by Patricia
Neill
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