From Times :
Show a business card or other written document to him and he'll give it a brief stare and tell you the words are meaningless.
t's not for lack of brain power. Streck, 25, said he passed high school math with little problem and he enjoys using computer spreadsheets and building Web sites.
When he drives, he navigates by memory rather than street signs.
But he knows that his future prospects are dim if he can't read instructions on a job application, respond to e-mails or even go through the newspaper want ads.
Comment: This poor fellow was moved along from grade to grade with little help. While the reason that he can’t read is due to dyslexia, the fact that he was able to graduate high school with barely a third grade reading level is baffling and disturbing. Another example of how our tax dollars are wasted away.
3 comments:
This happens in a lot of High Schools in the states. They just put you up into another grade depending on your age. Our teachers have given up on most teenagers and have went so far as to tell them that teachers are just underpaid babysitters. The valedictorian of my daughters class made a very nice speech. She said
" I would like to give back to this school and it's teachers what they gave me"...after a long and silent pause she said "Nothing" There is help for these students but they have to sign up for these classes, if they even know that the school has these special classes. I know some that don't so these children get shuffled up and then graduate without learning to read.
Shirley,
Yes, sadly I have known peers that have been shuffled along without meeting certain minimum educational standards. I remember one kid who was asked to read a couple of paragraphs from a history book. It was very obvious that he was having great difficulty reading through the section and that he had reading issues. I remember feeling sorry for him. Mind you, it’s been over 20 years since I sat in a high school. It’s obvious that teaching and testing standards have not improved since I was in high school. Thank you for your comments.
Shirley and Vulcan, I read a very good post in The Bobo Files (http://thebobofiles.blogspot.com/)
by one of his guest bloggers. I'm afraid that the author is correct in his assessment if our school system and we, parents, don't get acts together soon.
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