Category Archives: Reading

Really Neat Invention

Posted in Dyslexia, Education, Mistakes, Reading by

It’s about 3 by 4 by a quarter inch. There is a small monochrome LCD screen and it has a little microphone on it. You press a button on it and say into it the word you can’t spell and it displays the right spelling on the little screen.

There is but one big problem with it. To the best of my knowledge, it doesn’t exist. No one has made it yet. It has yet to be invented. Leastways, I can’t find it.

I looked to see if I can find an ap but couldn’t find any. Even if I found one, I’d prefer a separate device. I’d prefer no one looking over my shoulder, so-to-speak.

If properly configured, it would also display hyphenated words and differentiations for words with same or similar pronunciations. That way I’d know to use affect or effect.

Well, guess this one will have to just remain in the wishing part of my imagination ’cause I suspect it will not get into the design phase. I suppose the folks who design such things don’t figure there is a need of such things.

So, when I want to know how to spell some French word as soufflé, I will just need to try various combinations until I find the right one. Fortunately, I don’t have to use such words very often.

Twenty-six Letters

Posted in Education, Reading by

Our alphabet contains 26 letters. Learning to read would be easy if each had its own unique sound. However, all the vowels have at least 2 sounds. One of the letters has at least three sounds. Then, of course, some vowels sometimes have no sound.

The letters C and G each have two sounds, which are designated as hard and soft. The rest of the consonants have but one sound. Then again, some of them are sometimes silent… such as the K in know. I have no idea how that happened but it is just one more thing to make learning to read more difficult.

Then of course, there are the combinations. I guess that the most common combination is the th. It is so common that it is used in almost every sentence of any size.

Yet I believe reading can taught or learned quickly by combining two methods. First, there is phonics, the sounds of the letters. If a person learns the sound of three letters a day for 9 days, a person will learn the sounds of all 26 letters in a week and a half. It is not the perfect solution, but it is a giant step in the right direction.

The second method, what I call recognition, is also important. Some might think it odd, but about 100 words make up about 60 percent of our words by count. First, there are the articles, a, an and the. You will find them in almost all sentences and they are easy to learn.

Then, there are there are the pronouns (he, she, it, his hers, etc). Again, they are easy to learn and they are well peppered throughout our language. Anyone who learns these few words will be well on their way to learning.

Using these two methods, a person can easily learn the basics of reading in weeks, not months. It would certainly be less than years.

I would really like to experiment with this method and I understand there are some who can’t read. However, for that to happen, it would mean getting three things together: me, a place of reasonable comfort to serve as a classroom and, naturally, a few students. I believe I could teach about 8 to 10 at a time for a couple of hours a day. I believe I can have most in the class reading at 5th or maybe 6th grade level in a little more than a month.

It is not as if I would need to teach much in the way of vocabulary. Most of us have pretty good vocabularies by the time we reach 5 or 6. It would be a simple matter of learning to recognize the words on paper, or a screen.

I have been considering making an attempt at it. So far, I haven’t managed to get anything off the ground. I guess there are two problems. First, finding a class room. Second, finding 8 people who want to learn. The trick is that I have something of a catch 22. How do I advertise for students when they can’t read?

Then, as every knows, reading is the gateway to the world. Also, it is an important skill for learning other things. Most of us, by the time we’re 30, over half of what we have learned, we will have learned by reading. If you find a person who is intelligent, he or she will likely be well read.

Besides this and more important, it is very difficult to enslave a populace that can’t read. Finally, as a side affect, people who are well read generally can speak better. In a way, it rubs off.

If I Were a Racist

Posted in Abuse of Power, Cancel Culture, Communism, CRT, Dummycrats, Education, Kamala, Lawyers and Representation, Liberals, Obama, Pelosi, Politcal Opinion, Reading, Reporters, The god of education, Unions by

If I were a racist there are a number of things I would do or not do.

For instance, I would do all I could to make sure that 3 out of 4 black babies were killed before they are born.

Oh!. Let’s see. The dems do that. It is called Planned Parenthood and 86% of their locations are in Black neighborhoods. Moreover three out of four of their abortions are performed on Black women. Moreover, no one dare try to talk any woman, black or white out of and abortion or they will have the law you before you can spell Oliver Wendel Holmes. Just FYI: Planned Parenthood was started by a racist, Margaret Sanger, who had hopes of eliminating the Black race in the US as well as a few other countries. Apparently, her dreams fit right in with the FOC.

For instance, if I were a racist, I would see to it that the Black children did not learn how to read and write.

There is nothing better at controlling a people than keeping them illiterate. The dems love to keep Black kids illiterate. The thought of letting them into private schools causes their blood to boil. If you don’t believe me, just mention school choice around someone in the National Education Association. They will blister your ears with reasons to keep kids out of private schools…especially the ones they have their children in.

For instance, if I were racist, I would want to keep Black people in the downtown area, the slums, the projects.

Now let’s see. President Trump did more to help the Black wager earner than any of the dem presidents. For this he was called racist by the dems. Moreover, he did more to help their education and decrease the crime… everywhere. Guess who that helps… the black neighborhoods, the slums and the projects.

For instance If I were a racist, I would encourage riots in urban areas, where many Black people live. This would help my effort in two ways. First, it would drive businesses out of the areas, many of which are owned by Black people. Second, it would make it far more difficult for those unable to leave the area. It also makes it difficult for the kids remaining to get good jobs.

Now let’s see. Do I really need to expand on this. Have we not all seen what has happened in the FOC run cities? Have we not seen the riots and fires? Does anyone realize what this does to real estate values. Think about it, really. The urban values go down and the suburban values go up. Let’s face it, everyone likes to have their home in a safe area. So the businesses shut down and those who can afford it move out of town to places the FOCs don’t control.

For instance, if I were a racist, I would want my schools to teach racism in schools, as the FOCs do.

So if you really think about it, while the FOCs are so quick to yell racist, they really ought to look in the mirror. It is also a pretty good indicator. If someone calls me a racist, it means they have nothing bad to say about me. They are simply using the attack of last resort. Anyone can call anyone a racist… this without an ounce of proof.

For you I have presented proof. The FOCs are the real racist. Truth be told, we all know it. Just is most are afraid to say it.

Reading

Posted in Reading by

Now that I am retired, I had considered trying to teach reading. Ideally, I would like a class of 6-10 adults or older kids. I do have teaching experience but in electronics, specifically radar. To me, reading does seem somewhat simpler than radar. Then a fact came on me, mostly by accident. If a person knows the 100 most frequently used words, they will recognized about 2/3 of the words in a novel. Obviously, technical and scientific books are more difficult.

Nonetheless, I did a search for the most frequently used words and most are four letters or less. There are a few exemptions but if a person just learned the words that are 5 letters or less, he would be well on the way to learning how to read. By the way, many of the most common words are three letters or less. Consider the articles: a, an and the. One or more is used in virtually every sentence. Most sentences contain pronouns with three or less letters: I, me, he, she, it, etc. These words are easy to learn and they are frequently used.

I am a firm believer in phonics. Word memorization certainly helps with the short frequently used words. as I said, about a third in the regular novel. That leaves a third of the words that must be learned and the most effective way to learn them is the old tried and true phonics. Even so, most non-vowels have but one sound which can easily be memorized. C, G, W and Y do require a little more attention, but not much.

The vowels are the letters that require special attention. First, some of them have three or even four sounds in the English language. Then too, sometimes, they have no sound at all. Lastly and most difficult to deal with are the combinations: ough, ew, th, cr, ch, sh, etc, etc. and so forth.

Finally, a person who is leaning to read need know very few of the rules of speech. The reader only reads what the writer writes. If the writer wrote it wrong, it is the writer’s problem. To be sure, some simple generalities would need to be dealt with. Oddly, at one time, the English had no punctuation. Now, it controls the flow of the written language so that it helps us understand the writers intent, both meaning and and flow… as if spoken. The concept of paragraphs and chapters would likely be good too.

As for writing, once a person has mastered reading, he is well on his way to knowing how to write. It’s just all those words that sound the same but have different meanings that they would have to learn how to deal with. To my way of thinking, if they are pronounced the same, they ought to be spelled the same.

At any rate, maybe you know someone who can’t read. You might be able to use what I have written here to get him a start. Then he will be a threat to the FOCs. He will know how to read. He will be a man who will be able to make up his own mind. The dems don’t like that. Then he just might be able to tell when they are lying to him.