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WhIIby Fr.. Prou., WoVVesday, Jwty 12, 1004. Page7 Write on iLast week 1 read an articulate argument support- inýg Whole Language education. I agreed with most of For those disembarking Flight 499 fromn the Planet Xanadu Whole Language grîps the elernentary school system like Zebra Mussels. It attempts to teacli the reading and writing the same way children learri to talk: by babblizig and gabbling and imitating. Thus: to teach students to read, we must throw out boring primers and encourage eidren to read, read, read. -Wen tey are not sticking thefr own noses in books, children should be read to; language cornes by imitation. The more they hear, te better the little mind will grow. Children should also be encouraged to write, write write; te turn their own experiences into little çems o?' stories; te edit and correct and dissect thewr own stories; te illustrate their own stories, and to see their own words produced in as professional a piece as possible. With me so far? Concentration on reading and writing in tis way accelerates performance. Chidren in Grades 3 and 4 will write articulate, charming, readable stories of 1,200 words (double the lengthOf this column) and on occasion double or triple that. (Challenge me on that, and l'Il invite every Grade 3 and 4 in Whitby te send their articulate, charming, readable stories te editor Maurice Pilher - and dare' him te print the lot.) That's the strength of whole language - it builds strength and skdl by practise. Strange. That's the same way you learn te throw a bail, shoot (or stop) a hockey puck, play the flute or run a marathon. Practise. Lots of it. If Whole aae ended there we could ail gloat in re-read.gherlCollected Steries of the Third Grade. Unfortunately, Whole Language Purists, recgn0 Vn that they're on te a good thing, begin te throw n te kitchen sink. Once they threw out those atrocious Dick, Jane, Puff Sally readers (now fifty years old) they threw out âÎelling, Dictation and Grammar. Now, if you have children writing their cute littie faces off, and you are going to take them through the Writing Proceas and correct ail their writing, then you will accurnulate tenP twenty, thirty words a week in speling errors. Couple that with a teacher who will keep trac k of Johnny or Jane's errors, and make up a personal dictation list, then you could throw out spelling dictation. We don't want to dampen the child's enthusiasm for writing and reading. That doesndt mean we don't stress the importance of spelling -- by getting it right, which is the only acceptable pattern. Whole Language theory, as I said, also throws out the formai teaching of grammar. The argument? Formai study of grammar has no lirak te writing skills. Wonderful. So we now graduate students from higli sehool who canot identify a verb, a noun, an adjective, or an adverb, and who wouldn't know a pluperfect verb from the heartbreak of psoriasis. Subject verb agreement? Come on get real, sir. Remove passive voioe construction? bure, you' bet. Change a narrative ftom past perfect te present tesRight. Does ail Liis maLter? If we want te give students the shils te Lurn first draft doodling inte crisp, clear English, yes, iL matters. Would we teach mu.sic this way? Hockey? Tennis? Judo? No. We provide game Urnme and serimmage for enjoyment, but unprovement takes more than pract- ise. IL takes patient, knowledgeable coaching in the fundamentals. By not teaching the fundamentals of grammar, we deprive students and teachers of the tools for honing, sharpening and polihn language. Can we then be surprise at.theresuits - - r ~~waw~m INVERLYNN FROM THE AIR% 1930 This picture, taken b Noran Irwin of Red Wing Orchards, was one of Whitbys fine estates at the corner of Rannd Giffard streets. Development lias since filled in the land east and south of the old hous, bufit in 1860. Whltby AMUhvM photo 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday, January 11, 1984 edition of the WWIBY FEE PRESS " Earl McEvers, custodian et Anderson Collegiate, <ied on Jan. 3. " A patient at the Whitby Psychiatric Hospital who wandered off the grounde had to have hie hands and lest amputated due to, evere frostbite. " James R. Miller is the new adniinistrator of the Dr. J.O. Ruddy General Hoapital. " Whitby figureskaters Christina Lilly and Scott O'Neill will compete in the Canadian chamnpionàips in Regina. 35 YEARS AGO from the ThusdxJanar 195 edition of the " A safety program will begin in the Town's public schools after a 10-year-old student Was bit by acar. " Mayor Har-ry Jermyn suggested in bUs inaugural address that the Town of Whitby should annex parts ofWhitbhy Township. ~i * i-on ir sd a 8total of $4,000 aiginWtIyn198 l he liret prisoners moved into the new Whitby Jail on Victoria Street. 125 YEARS AGO from the Thursa, January 7, 1869 edition' of the WHI'BYCKRONICLE " An inscribed pI'p was presented to carriagemaker Michael (YDonovan by his employees on New Yae at Iedo.88ws287 ninraeo 4prosoe 87 " Whitbys population s h n f16 a ,6,a nraeo 4prosoe 87 *John A. Donadeon i. promoting the growing of flax in Whitby as a cash crop. ' The annual meeting of the Whitby and East Whîtby Agricultural Society will b. held at the Globe Hotel, Brooklin on Jan. 14. OMO"- 7 1 Mûk&6 A 1 --- ------- 0