On Reading, Walking, and Parenting
An Old Boy recently offered this advice:
“My oldest son learned to read when he was very young, and my wife and I were quite proud of this. It must be a result of good parenting, right? But then our second son came along, and he didn’t master reading until he was much older. What had happened to our good parenting? Did we do something wrong? Then my sons’ teacher gave me this bit of advice:
‘Reading is a bit like walking. Some learn to walk at 9 months; others still struggle with it for another half a year. But they ALL learn to walk. Now, we could offer intensive walking exercise programs, and it just MIGHT just help a boy learn to walk a month or two earlier. But what would we really accomplish by doing this? And why would we EVER put a little boy through all that stress for so modest a benefit? The same truth holds for reading’.”
The Power Point 