Re: parents and reading
Jacque Ensign (ensign who-is-at pilot.msu.edu)
Wed, 13 Dec 1995 17:35:28 -0500 (EST)
I'll add another twist into this discussion of parenting influencing reading
instruction or teaching influencing parenting to say that when one is a
homeschooler, these two definitely interact. After 5 years teaching early
childhood, I homeschooled my children for 11 years and now work with a number
of homeschooling families on the sidelines of my academic work. When I began
homeschooling, I was grateful for my schooling background but later found it
interfered with my ability to "be here now" with my kids. Like Heath's
middle-class parents, I couldn't seem to not teach. I've watched mothers who
have no teaching background handle homeschooling with less conflicts than I
felt I had, but these parents are already good readers and middle-class so they
aren't free of previous schooling. The parents who have the toughest time
teaching their kids to read are those who are not middle-class and who don't
read on their own. I say that because non-middle class who read have no trouble
with mentoring their kids into reading. After watching hundreds of these
homeschooling families over the last 15 years, I'd have to say the single most
important ingredient in children's reading is the modeling the parents do, not
the way they introduce formal reading. It says a lot for Rogoff's work.
Jacque Ensign
University of Virginia