State Farm Helps Promote Gobbledygook
In a remarkable ad, State Farm Insurance has announced
it is presenting its "Good Neighbor Award" to a first grade
teacher for teaching her students to spell incorrectly.
Under the headline, "In Ms. White's Class, Some Of
The Best Writers Can't Even Read Yet", the ad praises the teacher for
developing a system that uses a "mixture of symbols, pictures and
some rather creative scribbling" by first grade students as they
attempt to "write" stories. Somehow this unintelligible mess is
suppose to teach children to read - by reading their own stories.
The root of this philosophy is the complete abandonment
of phonics while replacing it with the discredited whole language,
inventive spelling concept. This abandonment of proven teaching methods
for worthless fads is a waste of massive energy, classroom time and
creativity. Ms. White would better spend her time just teaching children
to read through tried and true methods. Then she would be truly worthy of
an award - because if her students could read - she would be a unique
teacher indeed.
State Farm has proven itself to be just another victim of Outcome-based
Education - but it's Ms. White's students who will suffer.
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