What is writing really?

Anyone out there need some humor after this gloomy day?
Here's a pic from my go-to source of never-disappointing funnies: Bill Waterson's, Calvin & Hobbes of course.
BTW, one reason I love C&H SOOOO much?? It's the FIRST thing my dyslexic son ENJOYED reading. When you're a mama and you have a kid who struggled with reading and you get to the point where you hear your baby laugh out loud at something he READ...the word priceless doesn't even begin to explain...
Anyway, I hadn't even thought of all that before deciding to post this...just in a little homework slump and thought I'd see if anyone else needed a giggle.
If you don't think Calvin & Hobbes are funny--you don't have a pulse!!! ;)

And on a side note, (since I already went all soapboxy on you), Calvin really could be the poster boy for a dyslexic male child with ADHD (which is also highly correlated with dyslexia) and if so, then Dick and Jane are the evil enemy to children everywhere who wish to become good readers and spellers.

Those evil little readers are the epitome of whole-word learning (or sight word learning/whole language), which is a dumb philosophy our educational system has bought into (hook/line/sinker) and arrogantly refuses to let go of.
What Dick and Jane replaced was something called, "phonics," which is not to be confused with, "hooked on phonics" (which is still another version of whole language poo).

Phonics-rhymes with tonics, ebonics, onyx, Sonics (plural, as in "wow, this town has a lot of Sonics, I bet the obesity rate is high!"). If you're not sure what that word means (because if you're less than 100 years old, chances are you probably don't REALLY know what it means) look it up in the dictionary. And, while you're at it...why don't you grab a book called, "Why Johnny Can't Read."

See, I started out trying to cheer everyone up, and now I'm getting angry all over again...Breathe...In...Out...Whew...Sun salutation...Okay folks, teaching any kid--dyslexic or not really isn't rocket science. It involves teaching them to recognize that every letter is a symbol which corresponds to a sound (or several). It involves teaching that words are made up of those sounds,which correspond to those symbols. It involves teaching rules such as when a "g" says a soft sound or a hard sound, or why some words have silent final e's or why words like "all" and "puff" and "fizz" end with double consonants, etc. If one has learned these rules then they can spell correctly pretty much all of the time. Why? Because they have mastered the code to our language. The rules are the code. If you have the code, you can sound out pretty much any and every word and spell it too! (If you don't believe me research how people win spelling bees--it involves mastering the code.)

However, rather than equip people for success (God forbid!), we take the lazy way out and "teach" whole language. We teach children not to master our language; we teach them to memorize it. Therefore, language to them has no rhyme and no reason. It is unpredictable and unreliable. They have no code to fall back on. They are equipped to be poor guessers because they don't know what to do when they encounter the plethora of exceptions out there. Gee, if you read our nation's reading report cards you might start to notice some trends.

Dyslexics are horrible at memorizing random facts which have no value or meaning...which is why memorizing sight words is like...not gonna work for them. I assert that because of those scum bags, Dick and Jane, it isn't just the dyslexics who miss out. It's also all of the other kids who struggle with reading. With 20% of the population being dyslexic, the rest of the percentage of our kids who are failing readers are just Dick and Jane casualties.

...wouldn't it be nice if that ole monster bureaucracy we dump exponentially increasing amounts of money into every year, the dept of edumacation (or something like it) were willing to change?

Wouldn't it be nice if Spaceman Spiff could declare some sort of Zog war against them until they actually do something in the best interest of children across America? Too bad Obama won't appoint Spiff to head up edumacation and take Arne Duncan's place...

Oh dear! I just posted a picture which contained an instrument which resembles a gun (please don't get the zero tolerance police after me!) I mean this is Arkansas, so let's just pretend he is just holding his pistol in church! ;)

Moral: 

Calvin and Hobbes= funny, creative, great reading material for dyslexics and anyone with a heartbeat

           

Dick and Jane=satan and his evil lady companion transmogrified into freakishly-nice-looking children who will beat any capacity for reading right out of kids with a rusty lead pipe while mocking them and spitting in their faces.