G'morning Vern,

 MM>My spin on this is that reading to kids is 80% wasted effort if
 MM>the reader isn't showing the child what's being voiced - at all
 MM>ages.  "Monkey see, monkey do" is exactly how youngsters learn.

 VH> I agree -- INTERACTIVE reading is what's needed.

 MM> VH> I agree -- I think, however, in the US at least, we simply by fad have
 MM> VH> some answers.

 VH> The National Geographic has a wonderful DVD called "In the
Womb" which
 VH> takes a little girl from conception to birth and includes shots of
 VH> twins playing in the womb, surgery in the womb, and so on.  It uses
 VH> General Electric 4-D Sonogram, which is almost like looking through a
 VH> window at the child in the womb.

The BBC has been running a set of series hosted by Peter Winston 
which are also out on DVD - and the fetal section was much as you 
describe the National Geographic's...

 VH> The pro-choice supporters are outraged by it -- because it shows how
 VH> HUMAN the unborn child is at a very early age.

Once through its evolutionary rehearsal ! 

 VH> One point in favor of that is the independent
 VH> development of writing in many parts of the world.  If there is no
 VH> brain structure to support it, why does it keep popping up all over,
 VH> from the Near East to Centeral America?

Excellent point...

 VH> Again, the independent development of writing -- and of different
 VH> SYSTEMS -- alphabet, heiroglyphics, sylabaries, ideographs and so on --
 VH> tend to show you are right.  Writing took advantage of what was already
 VH> there.

So if they've got reading and writing round the wrong way,  how 
good are the prevailing hythoseses on how we read ?

:-)

Miles

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