Eve Kiddie, literacy co-ordinator, Clarkson Community High School
IT’S the first day of high school for Johnny. His new uniform looks smart. His bag is packed and ready, but the boy hovers over his breakfast, chin in hand, looking depressed and his anxious mother knows why; he cannot read.
Johnny, into his eighth year of schooling, has difficulty decoding; that is, he cannot sound out new words. His mother didn’t realise that early reading difficulties were indicative, according to researchers, of his reading ability in Year 11. Johnny may never catch up.
Instead, he is likely to become disruptive or an expert in avoidance in the attempt to mask his failure.
Happily, a large proportion of Australian students are not illiterate (93.9 per cent of Year 7 students in 2009 were at or above the national minimum standard for reading).
Many, however, are aliterate – the prefix “a” indicating that one is “against” being literate. So numerous children in our society can read, but their reading is stunted because they don’t want to.
They can decode, but they are not fluent; rather their reading lacks expression. They are happy reading a simple story, but face an enormous hurdle in subject areas such as science.
These are children who read at primary school, but when surveyed, they say they have no time for reading or cannot find a book they want to read.
Parents who want the best for their children are very concerned by this drop-off in interest, but feel inadequate. They often feel angry at schools and teachers, feeling that they have failed to educate their children.
However, changes in the adolescent sub-culture have affected youths’ views on education; no one wants to be labelled a nerd.
Ironically, in our sophisticated, technologically driven world, the need to be literate – in every sense of the word – is more urgent than ever. An enormous dichotomy exists, then, between what youths want and what society demands.
For Johnny, without help and motivation on his part, it may be too late. But it is not too late to resurrect the love of reading in our aliterate teenagers.