Why do kids go thru school not knowing how to read, write, etc??

Question

I know most people will say it's becuase the kids don't care, the usual line.
BUT, I read all the time about other reasons for this.
1) schools do not want to help kids thru special ed, so they tell the teachers not to tell the parent that the child has problems.
2) There are too many kids in class for teacher to be able to teach them all and make sure they KNOW how to do these things.
3) NCLB mandates teachers to teach specific things at specific times. THey have to fly thru the work and stay on a schedule, so if any child does not learn the material, he is LEFT BEHIND.
THis stupid law is causing the very thing it was made for.
4) Some teachers just don't care.

It appalls me that kids go thru 13 yrs of school and dont' even know how to read and write!!!

What are the reasons you can think of?

Sometimes teachers are told to give the kids passing grades just to pass them on thru. Or, like in my childs case, the admins told teacher to give her good grades (even though before this she was making grades below 30)
so there would be no proof that she needed help thru special ed.
I caught what they were doing because on the schools website, the teacher recorded her true grades until I asked for an eval to see if she qualified for special ed.
After this, her grades were changed to a better grade. And, the bad grades she brought home were never recorded.

I tried all I could to be involved in my childs education. I helped with her homework and made sure she did it every day. I wrote notes to teacher telling her the problems she had with her homework. The teacher called me and wrote notes regularly. It was wonderful.
But as soon as I asked for sped eligiblty eval, everything stopped.
Teacher stopped calling, would not answer my letters, started writing critical comments on all classwork, stopped sending home graded papers,
did not have my child in the different programs like the others were in, like accelerated reader, 600 min. reading club, book it club, etc.
She could not read and could NOT do these programs, but instead of telling me this they just didn't include her.

Answer 1

Students with reading problems should be identified right from the beginning and special help should be given to then. All slow readers should have a separate class and a remedial reading teacher should be given the task to teach them how to read.and when they improve they are promoted to the next level.I agree that the class are too big to allow the teacher to help individual students and that is why it is better to group them according to their reading levels. I am sorry to say but some teachers keep to the faster students pace and just ignore the slow ones.

Answer 2

One of the bigger and biggest problems is absentee parenting. Parents have abdicated all responsibility for their children's education and it's infinitely easier to blame the teachers, the schools....There is no more respect for teachers, children are taught self-entitlement and parents taking their sides against a teacher. Actually, teachers do care, but they are beaten into submission and depression by large class sizes, not enough money for supplies, aggressive and confrontational parents - (you know the "Oh, not my Johnny!" syndrome), students who don't have the minimal amount of manners, respect and/or the desire to be in school. Take a look right here on Yahoo Answers and see the students and parents who complain about teachers without taking any responsibility for their own actions, never mind the almost illiterate composition of their questions. I would just love to see how parents would give individual attention to 25-30 children in a day when they can't deal with the 1-3 kids they have, for a few hours a day after school and 2 weekend days. When and if parents work together with teachers and continue the education of their children in their home after hours, by helping with homework, curfews, rules, expectations and DISCIPLINE, then we have a faint chance of turning this trend around.

Answer 3

The reasons are:
Faulty early education before school starts.
No rewards for reading or writing are in place. This is the key to have children attain. If they know there is a reward, they will do everything in their power for the reward or to be in the top group of achievers, either at school or at home.
Phonics are not being taught adequately.
There is no peer pressure applied by the teacher or parent.
To do this effectively, the teacher can use the whiteboard, and have an individual student read a simple sentence out in front of the whole class. Starting from most competent to least competent, so there is an element of peer tutoring.
This can be used for writing, from a single letter, word or sentence. Anyone who doesn't do this is letting students dream in class time. They must be held accountable for their time, instead of warming chairs. No one does school twice, so lets get it right people.
Another reason is pressure put on teachers to cover a maximum of teaching objectives in a heavily loaded curriculum. For instance, covering English, Technology and P.E and Drama: Oh make a prop, sing the YWCA song and perform it on stage.(It doesn't matter it's to 5 year olds who have 10 esl students who are all crying!) Oh yes, the curriculum objectives are on the planning, but not being achieved because everyone is crying!

Answer 4

According to Yahoo parents there are a lot of lousy teachers and school districts out there!
I moved my own 3 kids to 4&5 different early preschools and elementary schools because I didn't trust public education.
Now that I am in the public system teaching I haven't seen what you discribe in my school, but I hear it is out there. I think the parents really have to a) fight for what they want b) know the right people to take their complaints to c) do not be afraid to make a fuss.
Of your above numbers I go with number 3. We are getting to prescriptive learning. "It's Thursday- past tense verbs today!" "Too bad if kids didn't get it. " Leave no child behind is a farse. Where is mandatory summer school for flunking kids???

Answer 5

One of the biggest reasons, unfortunately, happens in the home. There have been many studies done on the relationship between a child's advances in school and their home life. Boys, one piece of research found, will learn to read easier and become more proficient readers if their father's read and appreciate the written word. It follows that children raised in homes where they are read to and invited to read also do better than children in whose homes there is a television, video games, and little else.

The underlying cause of poor reading is, unfortunately, lack of exposure and encouragement. Anyone who thinks that learning to read happens at school is under a misapprehension. Learning to read, like learning anything else, happens when a skill is practiced consistently. Children raised before the great age of television, video, and computers, read as a form of entertainment, learning, and exploration. Now children read to meet the requirements of an academic course.

Some second language researchers have hypothesized that it takes 25,000 focused hours to learn a language. Reading is just as complicated.

Reading can be compared to doing math in your head. Before the proliferation of calculators for math and science, students learned how to do addition and subtraction, multiplication and division in their heads. Now, few people under forty can multiply more than one digit figures in their head. Now a calculator is required. Reading has suffered from the same sense of obsolescence. New technologies and devices have lead some people to overlook the critical skills that are offered by learning to read and comprehend at a high level.

Answer 6

I think alot of it has to do with the parents, they think that the school and the teachers should do all the work and they dont follow up on thier kids schoolwork. As parents we should look at our kids school work and be involved it should not be totally up to the schools to make sure our kids are learning what they are suppose to learn. Parents need to talk to their kids and look at the work they do in school, and read with them and too them. Parents should not just drop off their kids at school, and leave it like that.

Answer 7

Obviously..........when the teachers give them a PASSING grade they must know (if they are a real teacher) weather or not a child can or cannot read.
So I say its the teachers that are letting them go through school not being able to read.

Answer 8

parents,teachers,and kids.Learning all starts at home.Children learn what they live. Monkey see Monkey do.But some teachers just dont care.There are very few teachers that do care.