The Sordid truth about Naked Children
Written: Jul 17 '02 (Updated Aug 17 '02)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Interesting incident in the history of education
Cons: Dry, dry, dry!
The Bottom Line: While this dry book provides a good perspective into different teaching practices.
|
|
|
| gracef's Full Review: Daniel N. Fader - The Naked Children |
This is a Very Sordid Book Review. The contents will likely be offensive. You have been warned!
Last year, I spent a considerable amount of time at my daughter's elementary school with a reading program that I had started with one of the school's reading resource teachers. One day, as I was entering the school, I saw the custodian, Joe, carrying several bundles of newspapers to the trash dumpster. When I asked Joe why he was tossing out the papers, he said, "Well, no one in the school wants them, so out they go."
"But where do they come from? Why would someone order so many newspapers if no one is going to use them?"
Joe shrugged. "They just show up. The teachers can use them in the classroom if they want, but I guess they have so much other stuff that they don't need these." He paused. "Want one? If so, come by any day at this time. I got plenty." With that, he gave a resigned, half-hearted chuckle and walked off.
As a parent, this rather concerned me. Our school is in the second largest school district in the state of Illinois, and it traditionally has some of the worst test scores in the district. In a time when everyone related to the school is concerned about the quality of education that the children are receiving, seeing an instructional aid so blithely tossed into the dumpster angered me. After reading The Naked Children by Daniel Fader, I feel even more strongly than before.
The Naked Children is the story of Fader's experience with his "English in Every Classroom" program in an urban Washington, DC junior high school in 1965. His program is based on a very simple idea... If schools make it so children cannot avoid reading, they will learn. And, if schools provide a wide range of reading resources that are relevant to their lives, students will enjoy reading.
In 1966, Fader was an educator who had only tried his program in one other school when he was assigned to give his program a real trial at Garnett-Patterson Junior High School. His goal was to prove that his literacy program would have the same effects as it did in its previous trial at a Michigan penal school. Through federal funds and the donation of supplies from publishers, he supplied the school with a wide range of reading materials. The question was whether educators could be convinced to pass on the traditional textbooks and embrace the use of newspapers and magazines instead.
The Naked Children focuses on one particular group of children who have as much to teach Fader as he does to teach them. He first notices a boy named Wentworth, who fakes illiteracy as a way to avoid reading the material that his teacher has given the class. He is a member of a small group led by a fourteen-year-old girl named Cleo, who, according to one of the teachers, holds the group together by sleeping with Wentworth and the other boys in the group. Cleo is the brightest of the set, though, and the boys in the group respect her for it. Through spending time with these children, Fader learns that children who have some input in the selection of their reading materials are more enthusiastic learners and that, without it, they are unlikely to learn at all.
In theory, Fader's ideas seem to be good ones, and, as The Naked Children shows, there is evidence to believe that they are successful. However, some of his ideas might outrage certain folks. The one that rankled me the most was his assertion that Shakespeare not be taught in schools, particularly junior high schools. This is really surprising given that Fader was educated in English at Cambridge, Cornell, and Stanford. However, Fader feels that, though Shakespeare's plays are great literature, he says that the language is such that most children could ever gain anything from reading it. In a way, I can see his point, but the idea of children not learning to appreciate Shakespeare really bothers me. Kids go to school to learn things like appreciation of a wide range of literature. If they don't learn it in school, where do they learn it?
Fader wrote The Naked Children in 1971, and many of the statements contained within seem odd to a reader in the year 2002. Fader frequently classifies the students at the school as "dumbhead" or "smarthead", and he advocates spanking and other punishments as effective means of the handling of schizophrenia. As I was reading the book, I also had to wonder if Fader would have the same experience today. Fader spent much time with the kids outside of school hours without any other adult supervision. Parents today wouldn't likely stand for that, and even if they said nothing, I think that school officials would move to prevent that from happening, especially when one of the children is a girl who is reputed to be promiscuous.
At times, Fader seems to hold contradictory beliefs. For instance, he excuses one of Cleo's gang for lying to his teacher about why he didn't turn in his homework. According to Fader, the teacher is responsible for the lie because she wouldn't accept the truth, which is that the boy just doesn't know. Fader feels that, because the boy has had a rough life, the boy couldn't possibly explain. Fader also asserts that educators should understand that intelligent yet poor black children don't speak standard English because they don't want to stick out in the crowd or risk having their parents resent them for knowing more. In a sense, he's saying that educators should lower their expectations due to the child's economic status. At the same time, Fader warns about the dangers of assuming that ability is tied to economic status. He chastises educators who assume that a student who doesn't speak standard English is necessarily less intelligent than one who does. Educators, he claims, are hurting the children by lowering their expectations based on the child's perceived intelligence:
If insufficient demands are the general rule in American public education, they are the specific rule in educating the impoverished child. As Vintner and Sarri pointed out, "Since working-class students are assumed by school personnel to have fewer advantages at home and to present greater behavior problems, they are also assumed to have less inherent ability." Like guilt, once the assumption of small ability is made, the fact is inevitable.
But Fader has already chastised teachers for wanting to hold the children responsible for honesty and for wanting the students to learn standard English. How can he possibly have it both ways?
Amazingly, though, there is much in The Naked Children that is thought provoking. His discussion of standardized testing made me think back to my encounter with Joe and the newspapers. Fader stresses that a teacher's top priority should be instilling enthusiasm and good attitudes toward learning in children. Good test scores are of lesser importance. He offers that a child that is enthusiastic about learning and books will acquire the skills to be successful in other areas, but if educators stress too much about test scores and attempt to impose the learning of topics and material that is uninteresting or irrelevant, the child will reject all attempts at teaching thereafter. While he's likely right, it's impossible to totally dismiss the importance of test scores, especially in a climate where government officials are basing funding on scores. For instance, my daughter's school may be closed down in a couple years if the test scores don't improve significantly. This is regardless of the fact that a higher percentage of kids participated in the voluntary reading program that I helped sponsor than scored above or at state standards on the yearly tests.
Fader also stresses the importance of extended family, especially in urban environments. Although a parent may have insufficient time to nurture the child, extended family members can pick up the slack. As PTO president, I can echo this sentiment heartily. I tend to think that parents who don't show that school is a priority tend to have children who feel the same. Parents who are too busy or who have work conflicts can arrange for grandparents, aunts, or uncles to help as well. In my daughter's school, the children whose parents are involved tend to be better students than the children who never have anyone at the school. I have little doubt that this is true regardless of the setting, whether urban (as Fader experienced) or suburban (as I have found).
In general, I'm really glad that I read The Naked Children. My one complaint is that Fader's writing appears to be more along the lines of a doctorial thesis. The children are discussed by name, but with all the sentiment that one might feel for a lab rat. So what could have been a heart-warming story ended up being pretty dry reading. This is particularly true in the last section of the book, where Fader analyzes, re-analyzes, and breaks down the "lessons learned" into educational theory. This might be great for a teacher or someone training to be one. But for a parent who is just trying to get some insight into the American educational system, it was overmuch.
Still, I recommend The Naked Children. If nothing else, it really shows how truly difficult it is to be a teacher, especially in urban schools.
For me, this book made me ask even more questions that I had before. I thought of Joe and the newspapers and wondered... Is the problem that the teachers didn't want the newspapers? Or that the kids didn't want them? And if it's the latter, how does one get children interested in reading more quality material when all they are expected to read is comic books and pop culture magazines? Sadly, I don't think even Fader has the answers.
My special Sordid tribute
In the book The Naked Children, Fader asserts:
If language is the clothing of life, no child should be sent naked into the world.
One person on Epinions who will never be naked where language is concerned is our buddy Sordid. (Other forms of nudity are possible, but NEVER where langauge is concerned!) A man with a unique way with words, Sordid never leaves you with much doubt about how he feels about people or ideas. I like that in a person!
For reviews of other Very Sordid books (or at least ones that sound that way), please check out the reviews from these brave souls:
erinrounds, gracef, Hypotenuse, james23, jankp, jenb123, jgibson2, jnbmoore, LatteChick, Lisa_J, lyagushka, miselainis, quasar, Redlass, sleeper54, tiffy0380, xiphoid
Special thanks to our intrepid leader, Petra (aka Agent Malibu Borgie) for arranging this suspicious salute to one of Epinions' most interesting personalities!
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
gracef
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Location: Lost in Texas
Reviews written: 206
Trusted by: 312 members
About Me:
Well, bless your heart!
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.