So Dwane at Visual Latin posted this on his Facebook the other day. I have spent a good amount of time (in between driving to swim practice) these last couple of weeks reading about Common Core. And yes, this is going to affect homeschoolers very soon so if you are thinking this has nothing to do with you think again. As I have been reading, I am so saddened by the deletion of classic literature from the curriculum. In high school, the reading is 70% non-fiction to 30% fiction. Some of the recommended readings are EPA reports and White House Executive Orders. Forget Dick and Jane killing an entire generation of readers. This will kill all the rest!! I know I am old fashioned, but some days I long for the time before technology when real entertainment was family reading after the chores were done, and when teachers took time everyday to read aloud to students of all ages a really good story! Thank heavens for homeschooling where the teacher can still read aloud everyday those very good stories.
http://www.earlytorise.com/where-the-real-secrets-are-found/#
My first experience with Shakespeare was a read aloud session in 9th grade. And at first, I was skeptical of the teacher because he had a big poster of the rock band KISS on his wall. But for 5 days we sat at our desks and read Romeo and Juliet aloud.
ReplyDeleteIt was the best part of my day for those 5 days. The language was amazing, and for all that we were giggly 14 year old, we settled down as soon as we started reading. There's something about reading aloud that makes you want to read well. It really is a strange phenomenon.