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generally share this misconception.) ... His self-image had been badly damaged by school. The only reason it survived at all I figure is because he was so oblivious to most of what was going on at school - he just spent a lot of time waiting for re cess and to go home. Also, he has loving and supportive parents who knew he was a perfectly normal compe tent kid in spite of what the school was saying. In working with his self-concept (which sounds like a formal program I sat down and planned but was really just intuitive and came out of liking him) I told him all the neat parts of him I saw: "You ask marvelous questions," "You have a lot of insight into people," "You're pretty perceptive," etc. I also told him he could read. "Can you read this word?"Iasked. "Yes." "Great, you obviously can read, Ian. We're not working on-a new SKITl. We're simply improving. We all improve our reading skill constantry usually by how frequently we read, using various books, magazines, news papers, and so on." Once he dropped the belief that said, "I can't read," we were over a major hurdle. One day he read a whole book in one sitting (a little book - so what?). Casually I pOinted out it was great to complete a whole book at one time. He ~as astounded and overjoyed. He took it home and read it to his mom and dad in one sitting, he read it to his little sister. Yea' Ian can read. In the three years Ian read books, magazines, and newspapers with total comprehension which often in cluded penetrating questions and com ments about the author's intention. We used many of the READER'S DIGEST educational books for reading skills, science, and social studies. They are fascinating and informative. Ian did work hard and long hours. I assigned his work. He seldom had a free day. In general I was go ing against my own educational philo sophy of "let the kids learn in their own time and in their own way and I'll be there as a resource person to be used by them when they want." Each year we thought he'd re-enter public school the next year and we were work ing on our goal of having him ready to do that. Ian knew all of this. In one sense, I think our three years were a failure. Ian never took full responsibility for his learning be cause I was the planner. Even though he was willing to be pushed, I still had to push him. That's not education (self-education). It was educational for me though. It's hard to quit "be ing a teacher" after "teaching" for a number of years. My own children (4~ and two who are 15 months) will be home schooled and I've learned now that it doesn't work for me if I push and try to "teach." - - Every year Ian went skiing with us for a few weeks. During that time we did very little formal work - most ly skied and read. These were our best times for both of us. Ian is starting back to public school as an eighth grader this school year. This summer he decided to build a go-cart. He studied an article on it for a few minutes, then minus the book, gathered some materi als together and built a perfectly useable cart out of scraps of materi al. He is able to intelligently dis cuss almost any subject from reincar nation to auto mechanics with a ques tioning mind. He is poised and self confident with all ages of people. He relates appropriately to my babies
and to all adults I've seen him with. He believes in himself. He's realis tic in his understanding of himself. He knows he skis better than he spells. He doesn't seem to waste time or energy bemoaning the fact. He knows he can change things in his life if he chooses. (He asked for a spelling book this summer saying, "I want to learn to spell.") He is lov ing and compassionat~ toward people (which can only come from a positive self-image, I think). By the way, his "P.E." program during the past three years has been karate (he complained the other kids talked and fooled around during les sons - their pattern from school, right?) and playing racquetball with his dad. I saw Ian this summer and said, "Ian, I'm afraid you'll lose yourself in school, forget who you are." "Don't worry, Paula, I know who I am," he replied. ... At the end of the third year with me, Ian took the same standard ized tests his classmates took. With the exception of spelling he tested far above grade level in all areas. He was interviewed by the school coun selor before school started in the fall. His mom, who sat in on the interview, said he fielded difficult questions with poise and self assurance. The counselor was im pressed and recommended that Ian take algebra, which is an advanced class for eighth grade. All of this has given Ian even more self-confidence ...
FEELING STUPID ... My 5-year-old daughter start ed kindergarten this past September. She loved it and is learning a lot at an amazing rate, I think' ... She has been telling me lately that she is "dumb" and "stupid" and "everyone else is smarter than she is." It both ers me terribly and all my explana tions and talks to her don't seem to do any good. - A NEW HAMPSHIRE READER.
... Just recently, one of my gui tar students told me that she is real ly getting a lot out of the lessons because I don't make her feel like a ~ummy' She went on to say that she as always been made to feel stupid in whatever she has attempted to do. I told her that she is not stupid, and that feeling that way can be an incredible hindrance in learning a musical instrument (or anything, for that matter). I also mentioned that our school system is quite good at making people feel stupid. She agreed. - DAVE VAN MANEN (CO). [JH:] A great many parents have sent us letters saying that very soon after their young children began school, they began coming home saying that they were "dumb" or "stupid." This is just as likely to be true of children who are doing very well in schoolwork as of those who are doing badly. These letters remind me that when I was teaching fifth grade in one of the most high-powered schools in the Boston-Cambridge area, a school that kids could not even get into unless they had IQs of 120 or more, almost all the children in my classes called themselves stupid. Their way of saying this made it clear they were dead serious - they really thought they were stupid. How did it happen, how could it happen
that in a school that thought of it self as being creative and encour aging creativity, these very bright children should have so quickly come to think of themselves as stupid? I think the answer is plain enough. When children are very lit tle, without putting it into words, they think of "learning" as exploring the world around them and trying to find out how it works and make some sense of it. They don't think of them selves as "stupid" because they are in fact very busy at exploring the world around them and are very good at it. They know they are good at it, because they keep finding out new things every day. It is only when adults begin to "teach" them, either in school or in the home, that children begin to think that "learning" means having information transferred from people who have it (grownups) to people who don't (children like themselves). Since it's perfectly clear to them that the grownups have a great deal more information than they do, they quite naturally begin to think of themselves as stupid. They think that being stupid and being ignorant, not having information, are the same things. They learn to say things like, "If you don't go to school, you'll be stupid" - though almost all the children who &£ to school also think of themselves as stupid,-oe= cause they are constantly confronting people who have more information than they do, or who say they do. Indeed, I think most adults equate having a lot of information with being intelligent, and therefore really do think of children as being stupider than adults, even if they are not conscious of this, or might not use that particular word. And so the children very quickly come to take this view of themselves. TVO HELPS SCHOOL OFFICIAL ... Our Assistant Superintendent, on his own, bought a copy of TEACH YOUR OWN, read it, afterward told my husband, "Now I see more clearly where you're coming from," and passed it along to the President of the School Board' - A CALIFORNIA READER. "PROSPEROUS ILLITERATES"
[DR:] Last year Allen Manning of Syracuse University sent us a copy of his dissertation called PROSPEROUS ILLITERATES. This fascinating work is well-written in ordinary, colloquial English, not "academese," and we think it would make a great book. Allen says he has had no luck in find ing a commercial publisher; however, the dissertation is available both in microfilm and in published form from UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS INTERNATIONAL, PO Box 1764, Ann Arbor MI 48106 (ask for Allen Manning #84-10-733). Allen found and interviewed 11 "prosperous illiterates," men who had successful businesses or high-paying jobs even though they could barely read or write. He had a number of questions in mind when he began: How do the prosperous illiterates in his sample explain their economic suc cess? How do they cope in everyday non-work situations? How did they overcome such obstacles as employment applications, handling the payrolls of their businesses, etc.? Do people in their work situations respond nega tively to their being illiterate? The results are highly interest-
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