DescentBB

I'm with you Flabby. We have a house full of books and always did. When the kids were little I read every book at least a dozen times to each of them. Twenty years later they still read. Haven't read that Cat in the Hat book in awhile though.

Flabby Chick wrote:Do parents in the US wait till the child enters the education system for it to teach them how to read, write and do basic maths, geography and astronomy? If so why?

Most parents are either lazy or too busy with their own self-centered lives to deal with the education of their children in the U.S., so they abdicate their responsibility to others.

My parents were that way, but I was always interested in learning things, so I did well in school and went on to college. My younger sister, on the other hand, was lazy, unfocused and an absolute terror in her teenage years.

I think that if parents in the U.S. paid attention to what their kids were doing and were active in their local school system, more kids would get a decent education.

My parents really didn't teach me anything, per se, but they encouraged exploration on my part. My grammar school taught me essentials like arithmetic, but I was always more of a visual/abstract learner... never really one for algorithmic solutions. I don't think there are enough opportunities for people with that kind of mindset, which contributes a lot to the fall in scientific abilities of American kids. Math and science require a very abstract thought process.

I don't know much about the \"new math\" controversy of the 70's, but I do think that the backlash against it might have something to do with this. New math seems to be really focused on teaching the abstract and then illustrating the special cases. This doesn't work for a majority of kids, but that's no reason to completely abandon the concept for everyone. I wonder what it would have been like if I had gotten such an education.

Flabby Chick wrote:Do parents in the US wait till the child enters the education system for it to teach them how to read, write and do basic maths, geography and astronomy? If so why?

I find it pretty astonishing that any parent would 'dump' the responsibility of educating totally on the school system. Most of my joy comes from telling new things to my kids...and i'm a thick bugger.

(aussie here)
As an example: i learnt howto read from my parents before i ever attended school.
In school i was always way ahead of everyone else in reading. I wonder if this is because, as you suggested, other parents simply didn't bother to teach their kids to read and relied on school to do it.

(hehe, tiger Europe is a country about as much as Asia is a country)

Ford Prefect wrote:Haven't read that Cat in the Hat book in awhile though.

You should, it's a crackling read! Mrs. Dedman and I are in that stage right now with our 4 year old.

grrrrr!

Of course there is a flip side...

...i got the eldest two up to watch the meteor shower last night (2am) and received a \"daddy, are you crazy, go back to sleep\" for my efforts.

Joys of joys huh?