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[Michael Winslow Czeiszperger <michael AT czeiszperger.org>]

On Thursday, May 8, 2003, at 03:16  PM, Joey Carr wrote:

> There's a huge difference between being able to read "The cat played  
> with
> the ball of yarn" and being able to understand literature that uses a
> larger working vocabulary.  Access to most basic needs depends on the
> first, but advancement beyond that depends on the second.

[...]

> And then people bitch
> about the welfare state because it only supports the dross of
> society--people who got to be the dross because they were  
> systematically
> denied access to things like literacy training.

There are aspects of education that access alone won't solve, hence the  
current controversy in Chapel Hill schools, where despite having access  
what has been described as the best school system in the state minority  
student achievement is far below average:

http://www.chccs.k12.nc.us/minoritystudentachivement.htm

"Nonetheless, within our schools over a period of time, we have  
continued to see African American students and Latino students lag far  
behind. The one common denominator is that these students, regardless  
of socioeconomic status, tend to be students of color."

The troubling aspect is this difference is seen "regardless of  
socioeconomic status", which means that the problem isn't just one of  
family income. I hope that Chapel Hill's Minority Student Achievement  
Team can make a difference.

On a totally different topic of how students improve their reading  
skills, I can't help wondering that while schools obviously have an  
affect, perhaps a larger factor is the amount of time the person  
actually spends reading. If don't see how any amount of instruction is  
going to make a difference if a student doesn't have a desire to read  
for pleasure.

________________________________________________________________________ 
_________
Some things just are, so stop before you spill allegory all over your  
shirt. -- Pratchett
        -- michael at czeiszperger dot org, Chapel Hill, NC