Every child to read by the age of six......current events?

Question

Should they be reading before then?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20071118/tuk-uk-britain-conservatives-fa6b408_1.html

Answer 1

I think 6 is an ok age, however I would not like to see children who can't fully read by 6 to feel alienated or, Their parents targeted as all Kids develop at different speeds.

Answer 2

I have four children, two dyslexic sons, and two very bright daughers. My oldest daughter could read before the age of 5 - did it do her good? Not much. She's more interested in sports, horse riding, etc etc.
Myy younger daughter has only recently started devouring books - at the age of 10. She could also read by the age of 6.
While my poor sons battled through their whole school lives. And I am a compulsive reader and will read through the night.
I think it is wrong to set goals like this - yes, we can aim to make sure our children read, but some kids do struggle more than others.

Answer 3

Obviously it would be nice for children to read before six, and it is certainly not impossible - I was reading at two, but I had very supportive parents.

I think the government is already encouraging parents to start the basics early with their children, for example with the "Books for Babies" initiative, where parents are given free books to read to very young babies.

However, given that many children don't start school until five, I think it would be unreasonable to expect the government to set a lower target than six.

There is nothing that the government can do to force parents to participate in their children's education, and so the earliest they can guarantee a child will start learning to read is five, and a year is quite a tight target for teaching reading from scratch.

Answer 4

Yes they should. It is a basic requirement. No one is suggesting they should be be fluent at that age, but that they should have a basic grasp of the alphabet, letter sounds and structure and how to form words.
If we have to go back to the Janet and John format, or the cat sat on the mat, what is wrong with that if it works?
I had read the Hobbit, much of Charles Dickens,etc. and was taking the NME by the age of 11. I was no scholar.
Reading is the key to education. We have a great literary tradition as part of our culture. One of our basic freedoms is the loose censorship of our print. Every community has a library in its midst, so everyone has access to this culture and broader information.
To deny children this gift is to deny them their basic rights.

Answer 5

I presume they mean read confidently by the age of 6. It won't happen unless parents read to their children and listen to their child read every night. At my daughter's school, if the parent hasn't written in the reading diary saying how many pages the child has read, the child has to stay in at lunchtime and do the reading then. It's very effective as the kids make sure the reading is done at home.
All of the children in my daughter's class of 7 year olds are at least a year ahead of their "reading age" due to the parents supporting their children's reading at home.

Answer 6

Children have different rates of development and I think it is unfair to constantly heap pressure on them in this way. Pushing young children who struggle with reading won't help, if anything it will put them off altogether. It should be an enjoyable experience.

Most children are able to read by the age of six already anyway. My daughter is six and reads very well, and is at the top level in her class. Most of the children in her class are able to read, and those who struggle are given more help. Those who are better at reading and writing are also given extra tuition away from the rest of the class so that they are not held back.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

I think if parents play an active role in the child's early development and make reading a "family thing," then true comprehensive reading could be possible by age six.

Answer 9

Children should learn to read before they go anywhere near a school, out of fairness to the other children they hold back while learning.

Of course, the major problem is the huge number of parents who never EVER read a book...how we expect children to learn when they never see their parents reading is another question that no-one dares to ask.

Answer 10

The new labour bourgeois are obsessed with USA and most of their policies come from George Bush and his mates. They start school at 6 in US, and that is why they came up with that figure. It's rubbish, of course, but that's politics for you. Apparently we will be allowed to confiscate mobile phones, but we have been doing it every day since they appeared.