Among Friends

[Sapphiregal]

I don't believe anything is being taught the way it was many years ago. The new math is unbelievably complicated from what I hear from mother's with young children. They work problems out in 3 or 4 different ways. Strange.  With online schooling that parents have been dealing with this past year, I hear that lots of kids are falling behind. So, I fear we have a generation of kids that won't know anything when they become adults.

[Eileen in Virginia]

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@Carmie wrote:

I am a boomer.  I was taught phonics for reading.  I think that is best.  I taught all three of my children to read using phonics and they all read well before they went to kindergarten.

Spelling was taught by studying a word list.. 10 words a week.  I had spelling homework every night.  I had to write the word 10 times and use the word in two sentences...every single night. Spelling tests were given every Friday.  I had spelling classes from grade one to eight.

We also were taught spelling rules...like i before e, except after c.

If I turned in any paper with a word misspelled, it was given back to me to correct, even for other subjects like history or science. If I misspelled a word on a test on any subject, points were deducted.

I went to Catholic school with four classrooms and four  teachers for eight grades.  One teacher taught 1st and 2nd grade in the same class room..one teacher for  3rd and 4th, and 5th and 6th and 7th and 8th.  There were about 30 students in the class rooms.

The teacher also taught art, music and gym.

Our textbooks were old and falling apart, but we learned.

When I was working, I was often asked if my major was journalism or English.  When I said I had no degree, I was asked where I learned my skills...answer, grammar school.

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@Carmie  This mirrors my Catholic school experience with the exception that we had 2 classes of each grade. From first through third grade, there were at least 50 kids per class. This tapered down to about 35 per class in fourth through eighth grade. 

[CalminHeart]

I'm a boomer and we were taught phonics, grammar, and spelling and tested on all of them. My kids are in their late 30s now and were taught the same things.

[Shanus]

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@CalminHeart wrote:

I'm a boomer and we were taught phonics, grammar, and spelling and tested on all of them. My kids are in their late 30s now and were taught the same things.

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@CalminHeart   Same here, but my grandchildren, although they read by sounding out the words, are encouraged to write as best as they can...misspelled or not. Their teachers feel it's better, at young ages, to give it a shot and learn correct grammar/spelling later on.

BTW, I still have to use spellcheck and still forget how to spell certain words. I think that's OK. Spellcheck was created for folks who needed to look up words at any age, right? 

[Melzie]

I agree with Carmie.  Phonics was taught so you could sound out a word when reading.  Spelling was different.  I too had a word list and you had to learn to spell the words and there was a test at the end of the week. During the week we had to use the words in sentences so you understood the meaning as well.

I begged my mother to teach me how to read and I started reading, printing/writing, and learning how to spell starting around age 4.  We had a reading lesson and a writing lesson every evening.  By the time I started first grade I was reading fourth grade level books and I could not only print, but I could write as well.   

Also, my mother was very wise.  My parents worked in textile mills and my mother always said that if I knew how to type I would never have to work as hard as she had to in a mill and she was right.  When I was seven she bought an ancient, used,  typewriter and every evening I had to spend 30 minutes  learning the keyboard.  A-S-D-F-G    H-J-K-L-;  It came in handy in college and I could type 100 WPM with no errors.  All of that speed has been lost with the advent of computers but knowing the keyboard still is helpful when using my laptop and I don't have to hunt and peck.

I think education today is sadly lacking a lot of basics that we older folks took for granted.

[Drythe]

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@SeaMaiden wrote:

I have some kind of spelling dyslexia ...I am just a terrible speller...spellcheck is my friend as is google.  I also have a terrible sense of direction.... I always wondered if theses two issues are related somehow in how my brain works?  I am an excellent reader.

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@SeaMaiden 

Same here.  I wonder?

[ECBG]

I was taught phonics, spelling and grammer-for years.

I knew the difference among all the vowels and read my elementary library from one end to the other.

[Annabellethecat66]

I'm a real boomer ( born near end of December).

I learned to spell by memorizing the word.

I think it helped me when I took typing in high school.  My typing teacher told me I'd never learn to type fast because in my head I spell out the word.  But at the height of typing I could type around 80 words a minute.  I thought that was fast enough!  Ha!

I agree that there are words you can't sound out and spell.

The English words are taken from French and various other languages.  It's impossible to sound out some of the words when spelling them.

[Tinkrbl44]

Not sure about the phonics issue, but I find it seriously wrong that kids are no longer taught Cursive Writing .... are they supposed to go their whole life writing in block letters?  

[Shanus]

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@Tinkrbl44 wrote:

Not sure about the phonics issue, but I find it seriously wrong that kids are no longer taught Cursive Writing .... are they supposed to go their whole life writing in block letters? 

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I 100% agree with you @Tinkrbl44 . My kids can barely print since they're always on the computer or texting, so they have no reason to actually write. They should know how to take pen to paper and write a legible letter or thank note or how about college essays...unless those can be submitted computer written, as well.