Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 23, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba Fri Winnipeg free press april Page 7 focus teaching kids to read by Joan Abeles special to the free press in Harper Lees classic Ameri can novel of the deep to kill a there is a scene wherein the describes her first Day at school As a child entering the first the teacher has printed the alphabet on the blackboard and then Calls on scout to read As i read the alphabet a faint line appeared Between her Eye and after making me read most of my first Reader and the Stock Market quotations from the Mobile Register she disco Vered that i was literate and looked at me with More than faint Dis miss Caroline told me to Tell my father not to teach me any it would interfere with my it is a humorous incident and it is easy to dismiss it As representative of a country school in an Alabama a half Century but when it comes to Reading and writing How different Are things really the great debate Over the emergence of standardized test scores As the great arbiters of competency and the general hysteria engendered by this Brouhaha has served to place educators squarely in two opposing Back to basics in one Camp Are those who be Lieve that All will be set right if schools would Only go Back to doing things As they did when they them selves were Back to basics is their in the other Camp Are those educators who surround themselves with research into cognitive development and who then try to devise classroom environments and pedagogical strategies to complement the terminology such As whole language and learning styles Are creeping into the Lan Guage and parents and Public alike Are what does it mean present Day teaching of what is commonly called language arts is predicated upon the recognition that most children know and understand a great Deal about Oral and written language Long before they Ever get to the Home the encouragement Given to the child in his preschool years to use and Experiment with and the nurturing of a desire to learn will determine to a great extent his Success in the Early years at exhaustive research conducted by the National research Institute and Marie Carbo shows that everyone has a style preference for and that five different categories of elements Are factored into the makeup of each persons d emotional Isth student in peer motivated or adult motivated does he require a lot of Struc Ture d sociological does he prefer to read alone with a Friend d physical does the child pre Fer visual stimulation does he learn Best when he is listening to something does he touch things or move around does he prefer to eat or drink something when he is Reading educators must understand that children learn to read in different d environmental is the classroom noisy Are there quiet areas for students who need silence to concentrate is the lighting soft or Bright is the room warm or Cool d psychological is the child an analytic or a global learner global learners May be characterized As spontaneous and paying Little attention to on the other analytic learners Are logical organized and As much As 7080 per cent of Young children Are strongly most students who Are Low achievers Are also most children will become increasingly analytic As they grow and will re main analytic methods what happens when these Chil Dren go to school and Are introduced to a Reading program for the most the Reading pro Grams espoused by the Backoo basics Camp Are analytic in nature that they begin by teach ing parts and then Progress to the phonics programs Are a Good and while the adult mind will see a certain logic to this it will most certainly pose difficulties to Young global phonics is also auditory in that it is rooted in the ability of the learner to discern to the student who Demon Strates a Strong auditory prefer this should work but to the student who learns Best through his other senses this could pose the whole Lan Guage approach with its emphasis on integrating the language arts in a thematic and meaningful con text will work Best for most Young but not children Are very versatile and most Are Able to compensate for any discrepancy Between their own learning style and the preferred methodology of the there Are those How who Are unable to and As time goes they will fall further and further reme dial including adult literacy will have Little Impact on them for the most because these programs merely reemphasize the teaching method ology with which they Are income Victoria school is an elementary school located in the heart of wind in the basement of Victoria school is a classroom which attracts visitors from across teachers Jerry Oglan and Greg Zvric conduct a program for Grade 78 special education Stu students entering glans and Zarics class Complete a read ing styles inventory designed by the results Are shared with the students and their the classroom itself is designed and equipped to accommodate the identified styles and preferences of the it also boasts a mini trampoline for those students who Are Kinaesthetic and get in addition to mastering the cur the students become familiar with their own styles and preferences and learn to compensate when they find themselves in a learning situation which is not de signed to accommodate in operation for five the pro Gram has been very integrated approximately 65 per cent of the students have been integrated into mainstream classes Many Are poised to graduate from High and some Are contemplating other teachers at Victoria school Are beginning to recognize the value of what is happening in the basement of their answer ing a Knock at his classroom door one Zvric found a Grade one student with a note from his teacher pinned to his can Johnny please use the trampoline for awhile Hes driving me crazy Joan until recently manager of educational services or Canadas daily was a High school teacher for eight years in Burlington and Oakville and the head of an English department for the Halton Board of watchdog questions farm Price subsidy Washington the Beady Eye of the general accounting the watch dog Agency of has fallen disapprovingly on How the department of agriculture Sells farm produce raising questions about the claimed effectiveness of one of its subsidy Are to be found in yet another report issued by Charles comp troller general of the United states and master of the it is an assessment of what con Gress might usefully do in the 1990 farm Bill to make it More effective than existing at stake is a five year Federal government program involving an Nual spending of the idea is to establish a farm program that will ensure the provi Sion of a reliable and afford Able food Supply to the United it has been a feature of on a growing since the great several of the issues addressed by this farm which will replace the soon expire 1985 Are of inter est to none More so than the International the purpose of these programs is to develop and cultivate foreign markets for farm products and As Well As the provision of food Aid to poor the Gao is not very impressed with the Lack of a strategic plan in the us a to provide the Long term commitment and organization Al Structure needed to compete in a global rather than says the the department continues to develop shortsighted Trade policies that Are driven by its farm because it has not planned Stra us a is poorly equipped to Deal with increased Competition in world of four us a agencies with marketing responsibilities examined by the two Are described As hav ing failed to develop specific goals to meet their International Trade object because the foreign agricultural service and the agricultural marketing service have failed to do the two agencies allocate re sources inefficiently and do not respond effectively to changing world failure to respond the report criticizes us a for failure to respond to growth opportunities in value added citing cheese As an example of a value added milk the prob Lem is identified As the departments preference for marketing bulk commodities and production technology reflecting agriculture ten Dency to produce More than can be the departments own economic research service estimates that better marketing would have generated an additional billion in value added exports and marketing and processing the Gao recommendation is that Congress command us a to develop a strategic plan and to Sharpen up its marketing in examining the Export enhance ment which affects Cana Das Grain exports by forcing Down prices that importers have to the Gao seems dubious about How it has been used and about How effective it really has embedded in the 1985 farm it David Macdonald Washington editor helps exporters to capture in creased Market share by letting them offer fire Sale prices without the taxpayer puts up a hefty subsidy in the form of govern ment owned surplus agricultural an exporter who peddles citrate wheat to the soviet Union is Given title to surplus wheat stored in government the exporter then can sell that Bonus wheat and pocket the the original idea of the program was to counter the huge subsidies on wheat and other grains exported by the european economic commune the Community common Agri cultural policy drains 70 per cent of All its produce sales the Gao report says that the us a first used the program to increase farm produce sales in countries purchasing significant quantities of Community subsidized As the program us a began targeting countries where the Community countries had a limited the Canadian translation of this sentence is that us a began using it to take Market share from neighbors and allies like Canada and lacking Matching tax revenues to give equivalent subsidy Canada and the other countries had to watch prices plummet and traditional markets cornered by big Grain exporting despite these the Gao called the programs effectiveness while farm exports had risen it is difficult to determine How much of this increase is due to the it was said the to separate the programs effect from other these included lower loan Export financing and other government the dollars depreciation against major competitors currencies and production the Gao said various recent Stu Dies agreed that the program had increased wheat exports but disagreed by How much with Esti mates ranging from two to 30 per cent world conditions had changed radically from when farm exports were dropping and govern ment owned Grain surpluses in the past year the world Supply of wheat has become relatively tight because of Adverse weather conditions and decisions by some producing countries to reduce production world prices have risen As a re despite its the Gao recommends keeping the program alive As a lever to encourage the europeans to agree to trying free Market economics in the Uruguay round of the multilateral Trade if that negotiating end ing in produces agreement on Freer Trade in farm congressional reassessment is unsaid is the gaos obvious belief that the pro Gram then should be decentralization plan does not go far enough the emotion of those affected by the provincial governments decision to move 700 employees out of Winnipeg and into Rural areas came through clearly and with unmistakable sincerity in an unsigned letter i ill quote the parts that illustrate How deeply the writer objects to the Prospect of being before attempting to answer the questions our Happy Home will miss dad so very he has to commute on the wild Winter highways or else buy some on room Shack if available in this have not town he is slated we both come from Little hamlets and left to have a civilized life in the How could you say it is a Good idea i would like to see Premier Filmon and family and you and yours move As just try our family along with others shall be split and we cannot afford to As you the schools and universities Are not the medical facilities Are All Here in Winnipeg not to mention the sports for the you must drive Miles to find a competitive team in the the culture Well the Ballet and symphony Are unheard not to mention the free press i work and have for Many years in a Fine jobs i understand Are very scarce in the Rural so As a matter of our husbands Are i would love so to hear you retract your statements i cannot believe you would say its a Fine youd better follow your suggestions and go Back to the maybe you could get the cows or bulls to listen to you and i know in affected and the move shall cause us severe financial and personal i would love to have my family live in our Home weve built for us in the the governments decision to Fred Cleverley move 700 jobs out of Winnipeg and into Rural Manitoba has triggered an emotional response from some of those never the idea of decentralizing govern ment is a Good the present government May not have undertaken the change in the Best Way it could and its implementation plan had All the finesse and tact of the proverbial Bull in the China but the idea is governments became centralized because of the difficulties in communicating Between Remote these difficulties have disappeared with modern communications and the time is right to spread government it is just not right that bureaucrats living in Winnipeg should make decisions that affect directly the lives of people living in Brandon or Vir Den without having some of the consequences affect the bureaucrats there Are two main problems with the current plan for it smacks of too much politics for a government which gets too much of its political support from Rural and it does not go far enough to be what decentralization should Manitoba department of Northern affairs should be located in its depart ment of agriculture should be in or Portage la and there is no reason Why its department of highways could not be in to be real the entire including the minister and Deputy should have its offices where the department it is hardly decentralization to move a few Low level jobs into Rural to do so will fail any test of and the tests of efficiency and Economy should rank ahead of the test of political advantage in any move toward some of the complaints raised by my Anonymous letter writer Are just Plain commuting on wild Winter roads is exactly the same whether the Home base is Winnipeg or the comment about one room shacks in Rural communities is an insult to those when i lived outside of in Rural i did not consider the houses i lived in to be any less attractive than my Home in there is just no justification for complaints about the Lack of schools or medical there can be a Point about but the closet half of Manitoba population which lives outside of Winnipeg have had to face this problem for sports competitions Are just As plentiful in Rural areas As they Are in the and there is Seldom the crush for 5 ice time that is so common the percentage of twin come families in the Rural areas of the province is just about the same As that in the free press is delivered in the All of us Are prisoners of the work we choose to would like to live in Rural As i did for so much of my working but the work i do now is available Only in larger if my pub Lisher decided to move the free press fur ther into the country than Inkster Industrial Park you would not see me with a sign Hung around my neck in or shouting Down any attempt at the Way Provin Cial employees treated Jim Downey on the Steps of the provincial 1 was surprised by the complaint about the Lack of culture in Rural i suspect the Winnipeg symphony and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet would appreciate As season ticket All the people who Are now complaining about the culture they will miss when they Are forced to in my the government should not Only stick to the guns it has identified in its first move toward it should tackle this problem with five years after the program is every one might be surprised at How Happy even those who were moved Are with their new doonesbury by Garry Trudeau it want you 70000k ;