3 ms·
> Five years is YOUNG. A generation ago, early childhood educators in the U.S. didn't even typically introduce reading until age six. We used to start reading
by Swizec 9y ago
> Five years is YOUNG. A generation ago, early childhood educators in the U.S. didn't even typically introduce reading until age six.
We used to start reading in 1st grade when I was a kid. That was 7 years old back then in my country. We learned letters and stuff in kindergarten, but reading was the main task of 1st grade.
My parents decided I was pretty smart so they tried to encourage me to learn how to read sooner than 7.
I vehemently opposed this idea and said that I'm not old enough yet to read and that they should leave me alone and that I will read when it's time to read. I was upset, I think, that people were pushing me to do things beyond my age and it seemed somehow like that was not what I want.
Somehow I was a fluent reader on the first day of 1st grade. I suspect I actually knew how to read before but refused to do it until I was the right age.
I'm not sure what my point was in sharing this story, but here we are.
- khedoros1 9y agoI started learning to read around 4 and was reading pretty well before the end of kindergarten, basically because I had the expectation that I could. First grade had a few tracks, based on reading ability. Some wires got crossed, and I ended up in the remedial class. The teacher wouldn't let me go, and the principal supported the teacher. That year was hell.
- philipov 9y agoI had a similar experience with remedial reading in 6th grade. When we were asked to bring in self-chosen reading material, I brought in "Complete Works of Shakespeare," as a protest. Turned out my reading level was measured at grade 12+, but despite being off their scale, rules gotta be rules!
- openfuture 9y agoI have the _exact_ same story. Parents thought I was reasonably smart so while the school starts teaching reading at 6 or 7 years old they tried to have me learn it earlier but I was extremely opposed to it since I didn't want to have nothing to do in school (and I thought that was all you'd learn there - which I guess is sort of true :^)
- bdamm 9y agoThat and what it means to have "protection".