Improving Reading Instruction For Children

The future of literacy in America is playing in sandboxes across the country. We often debate over what is the best way to teach children how to read. The answer is simple, watch the children and pay the teachers. Luxembourg boasts a 100% literacy rate and pays their teachers more than any other country in the world. There is no question in my mind that there is an undeniable link between the two. You get what you pay for. Over fifty years ago John F. Kennedy lamented, "Plumbers, plasterers and steamfitters are paid more for improving our homes than we pay teachers for improving the minds of our children." This remains true today. The United States ranks number 19 in overall literacy throughout the world.

Look around your neighborhood or your house and observe the things that those educated in the US have created. In my shower I have shampoo and conditioner. They are both the same brand. They look exactly alike except for the little words in black at the bottom which say "shampoo" or "conditioner". This means that each time I need to use one or the other I have a fifty-fifty chance of choosing the right bottle! How did this project ever make it onto store shelves without some brilliant marketing executive picking up on that flaw? Why is it, in the recent recall by Toyota, for sticky gas pedals, that all were recalled except those made in Japan?

Children start school at the age of four in Luxembourg. This is mandatory. They attend a two year pre-elementary program. At the age of six these children begin their primary education provided they are ready to proceed. They are also taught two other foreign languages at ages six and seven. In almost all cases students graduating from what would be the United States equivalent of high school go on to earn four year degrees. Students who do not make the grade, by the time they are 12, are enrolled in technical courses.

In Luxembourg, children are actively engaged in reading books. They read, discuss, write, role play, or do other activities. Every lesson includes language experiences in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In addition, because of the great number of foreign immigrants to the country, teachers are relying more than ever on a language experience approach, building lessons around the children's interests. In other words, their children are actively engaged in their own education.

In the United States, the majority of our public schools use core reading programs, better known as the "one size fits all approach." Core reading programs are much easier for our underpaid, undereducated teachers to navigate through. Those that make educational decisions in the United States are unintentionally cheating our children because they, too, apparently have not been educated well enough to recognize a marketing flaw when they see one either. A marketer's main objective is for the consumer to buy their product. They {the marketers} apparently don't care if it only has a fifty-fifty chance of working.

Luxembourg has clearly studied how their young children learn best. In addition, they pay their teachers more than any other country in the world. It is just that simple, careful observation of children and higher pay for teachers, equals a 100% literacy rate.