Hello. Remember Me?

| | Comments (4)

Contrary to the rumor started by my lack of posting, I haven't been spirited off to a secret bunker. I have changed projects at work and life has been busy - in other words, situation normal. I managed to see two, count 'em two movies last weekend at the movie theater. That hasn't happened since, well, since seeing two movies in one weekend wasn't a big deal. First up was a family outing to see Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow which was a fantastic B movie -- a whole lot of fun and not much else. Then we saw Shall We Dance?" with friends. I enjoyed the movie, a mix of comedy and drama with Richard Gere for the ladies and J Lo for the gentlemen. I can recomend both movies.

4 Comments

I fail to see what kids learning to read really has to do with liberalism or conservatism.
"whole learning" does NOT throw out phonics nor is it opposed to it. I have been a teacher of junior children for many years , and trained in reading recovery. I have seen children learn to read in many different ways. My eldest son looked at me with frustration and scorn when I asked him to 'sound it out' Just tell me what it says. He was perhaps a fortunate person who found learning to read easy. I don't recall HOW I learnt to read, but I do know it took me till I was an adult to come to grips with phonics lol - and I still don't get all those long and short oooooooos and ahhhhhhhs, but as a teacher I have come to terms with them. As to someones reference on coming across a reading and mispronouncing it -there are many instances in the English language where phonics lets us down on that.
I realise I am not expressing myself clearly and merely wish to point out that 'whole language' and 'phonics' are NOT at opposing poles of a scale and are not liberal or consertive. Whatever works for any individual engaged in the process of making sense of print is of paramount importance and the more we bring to this the better. The more we understand and make these things accessible is surely what is the fundamental point - not oppostition?????????????

Liberally conservative neice of Don Holdaway

I fail to see what kids learning to read really has to do with liberalism or conservatism.
"whole learning" does NOT throw out phonics nor is it opposed to it. I have been a teacher of junior children for many years , and trained in reading recovery. I have seen children learn to read in many different ways. My eldest son looked at me with frustration and scorn when I asked him to 'sound it out' Just tell me what it says. He was perhaps a fortunate person who found learning to read easy. I don't recall HOW I learnt to read, but I do know it took me till I was an adult to come to grips with phonics lol - and I still don't get all those long and short oooooooos and ahhhhhhhs, but as a teacher I have come to terms with them. As to someones reference on coming across a reading and mispronouncing it -there are many instances in the English language where phonics lets us down on that.
I realise I am not expressing myself clearly and merely wish to point out that 'whole language' and 'phonics' are NOT at opposing poles of a scale and are not liberal or consertive.I have also spent much of my teaching years working with children for whom english is a second language. With the help of phonics some have been able to sound out something like the word 'fence' but if you have no internal reference to what a fence is what use is that???-let alone when we move beyond nouns....... processes do not work in isolation. Whatever works for any individual engaged in the process of making sense of print is of paramount importance and the more we bring to this the better. The more we understand and make these things accessible is surely what is the fundamental point - not oppostition?????????????

Liberally conservative neice of Don Holdaway

I fail to see what kids learning to read really has to do with liberalism or conservatism.
"whole learning" does NOT throw out phonics nor is it opposed to it. I have been a teacher of junior children for many years , and trained in reading recovery. I have seen children learn to read in many different ways. My eldest son looked at me with frustration and scorn when I asked him to 'sound it out' Just tell me what it says. He was perhaps a fortunate person who found learning to read easy. I don't recall HOW I learnt to read, but I do know it took me till I was an adult to come to grips with phonics lol - and I still don't get all those long and short oooooooos and ahhhhhhhs, but as a teacher I have come to terms with them. As to someones reference on coming across a reading and mispronouncing it -there are many instances in the English language where phonics lets us down on that.
I realise I am not expressing myself clearly and merely wish to point out that 'whole language' and 'phonics' are NOT at opposing poles of a scale and are not liberal or consertive.I have also spent much of my teaching years working with children for whom english is a second language. With the help of phonics some have been able to sound out something like the word 'fence' but if you have no internal reference to what a fence is what use is that???-let alone when we move beyond nouns....... processes do not work in isolation. Whatever works for any individual engaged in the process of making sense of print is of paramount importance and the more we bring to this the better. The more we understand and make these things accessible is surely what is the fundamental point - not oppostition?????????????

Liberally conservative neice of Don Holdaway

Trish,

Thanks for commenting. Please try to comment on the appropriate post. And please note that Carl says he doesn't think either is inherently conservative and liberal, but that they got tagged (in the United States anyway) with those labels -- more grist for the political mill.

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Kevin Murphy published on October 23, 2004 11:37 AM.

Conservative or Liberal? was the previous entry in this blog.

A Foot Without A Sock is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

LINKS


St. Louis Blogs:

J Bowen
Christopher Johnson
Charles Austin
Archpundit
Random Observations
Brian J Noggle
Shelley Powers
Gateway Pundit
Listless Lawyer
Jim Durbin
Timothy Birdnow
Diane Meyer
Marijean Jaggers
Scott Ginsberg
Steve Boriss
St. Louis Bloggers
St. Louis Blogs . Org
Randall Sherman
Urban Review STL

Missouri Blogs:

John Combest
Blue Girl, Red State
Another Rovian Conspiracy
The News Buckit
The Source
Fired Up! Missouri
Susan "Farmgirl"

Favorite Blogs:

James Lileks
Glenn Reynolds
Rich Galen
Megan McCardle
Scrapple Face
In The Agora
The Brothers Judd
Geitner Simmons
Cronaca
Science Blog
Winds of Change
Da Goddess
Justin Katz
Fran Mason
Phil Carter
Greg Costikyan
Tom McMahon
Kevin Aylward
Rand Simberg
Michael Totten
Belmont Club
News Busters
Mark Ciocco
David Weinberger
Tom Maguire
Jon Henke & McQ (plus Dale!)
Kevin Murphy The Other
Craig Henry
Brian Tiemann
Crooked Timber
Charles Johnson
Powerline
Busy Mom
Jason Van Steenwyk
Jenne
INDC Journal
Eamonn Fitzgerald
John Little
King of Fools
Perish the Thought
Patterico
Jeff Harrell
Michael Yon
Ed Driscoll
George Roper
Jeff Goldstein
Mark A. R. Kleiman
David Opderbeck
Libertas
Bob Somerby
Ben Witherington
Creative Bits
Mark Daniels
Michael Spencer
Think Sink
The Brussels Journal
A J Strata
S K Murphy
Joe Carter
John Hawkins
Bridget
Back Talk
Joe Sherlock
Mark Perry
Daniel Dilger

Pundits

Charles Le Kraut Martel
Victor Davis Hanson
Mark Steyn
Thomas Sowell
Malcolm Gladwell
Robert Cringely
John Carroll
Paul Graham
David Nicklaus

My Interests

The Paralyzed Veterans of America
The American Anti-Slavery Group
Wayside Gardens
The Alliance for the Separation of
School and State

MacSurfer Daily News
Urban Legends
Diablo II Net (Unofficial)
The Word Detective
HotAIR
UN Documentation Center
Cub Scout Pack 787
Baloo's Bugle (Cub Scouts)
Wounded Warrior Project
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Defense Industry Daily