As a literacy person, who teaches reading methods, I have to disagree that
this problem is well funded or that the fault is female teachers!
1. In the original message the writer notes that there has been much
attention to issues of science & math. The pattern of funding has been true
since Sputnik and the establishment of the National Science Foundation. As
for the programs being well-established, I am shocked. What programs there
are often are underfund and in the city where I teach those programs have
been drying up.
2. I'm also really tired of all the ills in education being attributed to
the fact that men are not the ones doing the work! Please. Think about what
you are saying!
I am so tired of people saying if we just had this group or that group in
the schools the schools would be better.
The problems gender issues intertwined with literacy transcend reading
remediation and writing. Though certainly those are major issues, other
issues in literacy are not funded at all. Yet literacy--the ability to read
and take meaning from texts (of all kinds) is a cornerstone of our
democracy. The science and math we need to train workers and get
by in a world of commerce. The literacy we need to make living worthwhile
and to understand both ourselves and others.
<bgpace@edu15.coe.ufl.edu>
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