Earthside Education: There's No Rush to Read

E A R T H S I D E

USEFUL TEACHING IDEAS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS

There’s No Rush to Read

There is no reason to want children to read as early as possible.

Many believe that learning to read at 5 is somehow better than learning at 7, which is better than learning at 10, (and no one wants to be the parent (or teacher) of a child who doesn’t read until they’re 12). If someone was able to teach a three year old to read, they would probably do it, and also think it was a great idea.

Historically speaking, in most cultures and at most times, it is not normal to learn to read. Reading is a higher skill that our relative affluence and modern forms of social organisation have supported to the point where we take it somewhat for granted that our children will conquer it while they are very young. Perhaps it ought to be surprising that most do.

There is a range of ages within which children now normally learn to read. An abnormal or different learning journey does not imply, or cause, a defective intellect or psychology. Many brilliant scientists and writers had abnormal learning journeys;

…Albert Einstein was a slow-thinking child. At the age of three he was still unable to talk. His parents worried and wondered whether he might be mentally retarded……when asked to recite, he would often sit in stony silence. His teachers called him a dunce…
Albert Einstein Herbert Kondo Frankly Watts NY 1969 pp6-7

The question- ‘how early can a child be taught to read?’ needs to be replaced with; what is a good age for a child to learn to read? Many factors will be relevant. Some of these might include;
• the direct effect on the development of the senses referred to in the previous chapter, most crucially perhaps the sense of sight,
• the readiness of the maturing brain for the exercise of reading,
• questions of maturation of the body itself, including the establishment of a dominant side of the body and brain; and
• whether the time taken in learning to read and reading might be better used at certain younger ages for inculcating other and more basic and important precursor skills.

Another question which might not readily occur is whether learning to read earlier or later has an effect upon the individual’s relationship to Language; her use of speech and writing, and her lingual creativity later in life.

The pace of modern life is not a child’s pace. Yes, we need to teach reading skills, but all children will benefit from being able to take the time necessary to develop and grow, to consolidate skills and reflexes, to play and develop their own imaginative faculties; in a nutshell, just to be children.

Earthside Education