The Sad Cat

Seems like every kid can read when they turn two now. People just rush to it, desperate to get their kids reading for pre-school, or maybe for the first birthday party, or whatever. I've never understood it. Maybe it helps a kid to feel like they're ahead of the curve, and the confidence becomes an asset. Or maybe having an extra year of reading . . . nah, sorry, I just don't buy any of it. The desperation to get a good education in pre-school, the intensity of home pre-training, etc., it just kind of makes me sick to my stomach. (I blogged at length about my strange, visceral prejudices against educational elitism a long time ago, a good example of a normally even-tempered person descending into full-on rant mode)

So the skeptic in me has always fought against the educational craziness. I push back, in my own way, with the only weapon I have- Rex. I've been very casual about these external measures of his education, happy to educate him by reading to him and just answering his questions, without any formality or real expectation of measurable advancement. Crazy to use a kid like that as a pawn in my own war of contrariness, but this is an important principle, so he'll understand one day.

Anyway, my bitterness has led to a very laissez-faire attitude when it comes to his progress at reading. Macy is much more on the ball, and also the one that's in tune with what his pre-school was working on, what they want him learning, etc. Further, she stays very well-informed, through her mom, about the developmental stages our kids go through, and what the experts expect of them at a given age. This has meant that Rex has learned letters in the last year or two, learned to spell his name, etc., under the direction of a non-ideological and simply nurturing mother. (and in spite of my scorning nihilism).

All of this is just pretext for what happened tonight. I sat and watched Rex kind of figure out how to read. And what an incredible thrill that was.

He's been able to pick out an odd word here and there, and knows the sounds of most letters. He's even sounded out words with great difficulty, but I've never seen him work out a sentence before. Tonight, he picked up a little book sent home by his Kindergarten teacher-- The Sad Cat. The cat has a top hat. The rat has a red car. The rat had fun. The cat did not. The cat was sad.



And Rex just read the book.

He figured out that it doesn't work to sound out 'the,' and just started recognizing it on sight. He deduced that the strange, non-phonetic word 'was' just needs to be reasoned out, give the context of the sentence. He started reading 'cat' and 'rat' instantly, due to their being repeated in nearly every sentence. He applied reason to the phonetics and letters at every turn, and pushed through word after unfamiliar word. New words he had never encountered in print before- fun, had, did, not, car-- they all became part of his repertoire, things he came to possess and could use. I couldn't believe what a thrill it was to see him say "The . . . e . . . n . . . d . . . . en . . . d . . . end. The end."

The cat had fun. The boy read well. The dad was proud. The dad wondered if he shouldn't perhaps stop making big issues of out nothing and just enjoy the wonder of amazing little kids.