Going to school

was different back then.

Most of my Twitter feed is about work but there are a few friends and useful or interesting people who pop up with tweets from time to time. One of those is Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat and other books. I like Joanne's occasional "Story time" tweets when she will tell a simple story in a series of tweets.

This morning there was a tweet from her, three small pictures and the words "indisputable proof that you went to school in England in the 70's". The pictures are of one of those wooden "vaulting horses", a piece of embroidery on square woven fabric - the name of which I cannot remember right now (it will come to me in the middle of the night) - and a "Wide Range Reader".

I looked at them and realised I saw these things when I was at school too - and I am somewhat older than Joanne Harris. 

I never used a vaulting horse of course. It is unlikely I could even have climbed on one. The only way I would have sat on one was if someone had picked me up and put me there. There was one in the city primary school I attended for several years. It was reserved for use by the boys. (Girls wore dresses and did not change for "gym"  which we called "PE" - "physical exercise".) The embroidery we did do - well I was made to try. I can remember the teacher threading the needle for me and the struggle I had getting bright red thread through the holes in the fabric - and the tears and the frustration. We won't go there. 

And then there was the "Reader". Every year we had a new "Reader". We started off with "Primer One" and Primer Two". I suspect there are still copies of those somewhere around this house. It is likely they are there somewhere with the Schonell readers (Dick and Dora, Nip and Fluff), the Janet and John books and the "Gay Way" series. (I hasten to add that the last were merely a series with rainbow coloured covers.) 

We went on to the Wide Range readers when we left the Infant school and went to Primary school. I remember the tedious lessons when we went around the room with each child reading a sentence each "out aloud". 

Of course I had read each book from cover to cover long before. The Senior Cat brought them home. He prepared lessons from them. He let me read them. I read most of them even before I began school. Once read I did not want to read them again. I considered them dull and boring. When we were reading them in class I usually had another book under the desk. I would read that until it was almost my turn. Then I would hastily find the place the rest of the class had reached, read my sentence and then return to my book. 

Now I realise it is likely that my teachers were well aware that I was not paying attention in these lessons. They probably let me get away with it in order not to have me causing trouble. 

They don't teach reading like that any more. It went out of fashion here many years ago. Both my parents were involved in what was called "The Reading Centre" - a resource for teachers which should have been kept as it contained a great deal of material on the teaching of reading and the tools to do it. My mother wrote some of the little books that took the place of the old readers - but she still taught my nephews to read using the old primers and the Schonell readers.  

T... across the road has been mastering the art of reading in the last two years. He has come home with many small books to read. They are quite different from those my generation and the next generation used. The subject matter is more up to date - they now have the environment, space, racial differences and vaccinations among the topics.  But T... still cannot spell (and the theory is that it doesn't matter because he will learn to do it over the next few years) and he has not been taught to write. I told him the other day when he was going to do a "b" for a "d" - "remember it is the drum before the drumstick". He looked blankly at me and I had to explain. He's smart and he likely won't forget again. J...,who lives next door, is going to need a bit more help. His parents are hoping I will show him again.

I wonder about all this. There are still arguments about the need or otherwise for "phonics" - I am in favour - and many other aspects of learning to read.  It's not easy for many children. I was one of the lucky ones. It just happened for me but I really need to spend a day at school finding out what they do teach now.