Zeba Ebrahimi

People are asking me how it's possible parents don't know that their kids can't read. And the insane but true answer that teachers don't know their students can't read. I agree it’s not hard to tell if a child can decode words. The problem is that teachers believe (and tell parents) that decoding words isn’t necessary for “reading”, that all that matters is if the kid understands the story. So schools teach kids to “read” by looking at pictures and guessing. They memorize and "read" these books in school and "read" these books at home. If parents ask questions, they are told that this is how kids learn to read. (which is false.) They are told that this is how the teachers were taught to teach (which is true). And they are told to trust the process (which is a bad idea). Is the expectation here that parents argue with their child's teacher about the teacher's training? That's like going to a doctor and questioning the prescription they give you. Parents shouldn't be required to know more about education than their child's teacher.

Move to Austin! It gets better very year. So many cool, world-class people are moving to Austin from SF, LA, NY, London and many other parts of the world! Austin++