Friday, August 6, 2010

Children of the Code - A Must See!


Both of my sons have Dyslexia.  Therefore this topic is near and dear to my heart.  Following are excerpts from the Children of the Code website.  Please visit their website for the full article and a wealth of resources.

Excerpts from the Children of the Code Website:

According to the U.S. Department of Education more than 60% of K-12 school children are reading below the level needed to proficiently process the written materials used in their grade levels - reading below the level necessary for the brain-work of reading to be transparent to the mind-work of learning from what they are reading.  Obviously, reading is the skill that matters most to success in school and children who fall behind in reading are in great academic danger. However, it is not just the lack of reading skills that most endangers these children. It's the mind-shame.

None of us like to engage in activities that cause us to feel ashamed of ourselves.  So what happens to children who feel ashamed of themselves when learning to read?  They are in serious danger. The shame they feel not only motivates them to avoid reading, it also fosters self-disesteem and undermines the cognitive capacities they need to learn to read in the first place. Millions of children are caught in this learning-disabling downward spiral. Not only are they in danger of being improficient readers, which is learning disabling with respect to educational content access, they are also in danger of developing aversions to other learning situations that trigger similar shameful feelings. Such mind-shame is learning disabling and it can have a very powerful effect on how children learn their way into adulthood.

According to the latest National Assessment of Adult Literacy report (NAAL), over 90 million (4 out of 10) U.S. adults  are living lives socially and economically disadvantaged due to poor reading skills. Adults with low levels of literacy are significantly more likely to live in poverty, engage in crime and other forms of social pathology, and to live unhealthy, and even shorter lives. 

Our mission is to call attention to and provide resources for such a reframe. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. We don't endorse any particular expert, methodology, or product and we aren't trying to sell anything. We aren't trying to persuade anyone about anything except the necessity of deepening their learning. We don't look at reading difficulties through the lens of how to improve the 'teaching' of reading, instead through the lens of 'understanding the challenges involved in learning to read' -  from the learner's perspective. In fact, our primary allegiance isn't even to reading improvement per se, our work on reading is part of a larger mission we call  'Stewarding the HEALTH of Our Children's Learning'.
 
Our premise is this: regardless of particular methods of instruction, the better educators and parents understand the challenges involved in learning to read the better they can help children through those challenges. Thus, the mission of the Children of the Code Project is to help educators, parents, and all who care for children develop a deeper first-person understanding of the challenges involved in learning to read.

Please see The Children of the Code website for the complete article, more information, resources, and opportunities.

1 comment:

  1. That stastic just makes me sad. 60%?! Wow. I will be checking this website out. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete