International Day of Education
Published: January 24th, 2025
24th January 2025: International day of Education
So what, you may ask? What are we meant to do on this day – except to think about how education might be improved? I have been thinking (seriously) about education for about 53 years – ever since I entered teacher training. Have my thoughts changed anything, or improved education? Maybe, I would like to think that my many books (published by Routledge) have resonated with the teachers and teaching assistants who have read and absorbed the advice and information.
Though retired, I am still involved in education, and excited about my latest endeavour. ‘Becoming a Reader’ is now out, on my website, and available on Amazon. Why have I written it? Because I want to shout out and emphasise the importance of Reading (with capital R). There have been lots of reports recently of how the skills, and art (yes…art), of reading are sadly diminishing. Is the Reading candle about to flicker and die for many of today’s young people? I hope not! And we mustn’t let it! Reading is still the most important vehicle for positive human communication.
‘Becoming a Reader’ is aimed at anyone whose job it is to teach, or support, children learning to read: teachers, assistants, those in training, as teachers of the future – as well as interested parents. The book examines and explores this crucial set of skills – at word, sentence and text levels: inviting readers also to think seriously about Reading and how best to enable our young people to become effective and efficient readers.
Reading stems from language: growing and developing with listening and speaking as its strong, sturdy root. So, accurate and accomplished reading skills can only develop from a rich and extensive vocabulary.
From words to concepts! However rich a child’s vocabulary may be – it is merely the foundation of a fascinating relationship with language. Consider these words – bus, hair, pencil, pizza, towel…. moon, country, bank, communicate, society: the subtle difference between the first, and last, five? The first five words are concrete in the sense that children can form ‘mind pictures’: describing them visually using words of colour, size and shape. These words also relate to our senses – see, hear, touch, taste, smell. We form concepts of these concrete words in much simpler terms than the latter five. Conversely, how do our concepts of such words as communicate, or society develop?
From words as concepts – to phrases – to sentences: how do children gradually learn to combine the thousands of words in their vocabulary in a meaningful way; to support listening and speaking, as well as reading? Vocabulary is only the start of making sense of language, when we consider the millions of potential combinations of words.
‘Becoming a Reader’ therefore transports adult readers back to school: through the stages they have already been through as learners: the aim being to bring about greater understanding of the developmental process.
So, this International Day of Education, invites us all to focus on the crucial skill of Reading, with a capital R. Let’s light that Reading flame!
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