Hi Charles,
You were writing to Dan:
CB>Why do we place children in school if not to teach them?  Why allow
  >those budding artists of yours to continue to draw the arms and legs
  >coming out of the head?  Teach them a little today and a little more
  >tomorrow and soon they may actually have quite a few things
  >connected together properly.  If you allow them to keep drawing the
  >figure improperly without encouraging them to improve, their growth
  >will be much, much slower.
CB>And so it is with writing and spelling.  I see no sense in the
  >notion that children should waste their time putting gibberish on a
  >page under the pretense of language development.  There should be
  >some initial instruction and the writing process should be critiqued
  >and worked on every day.  Practicing the art of marking gibberish on
  >a piece of paper does not develop language skills any better than
  >would the process of storytelling or news-time each day.
I noticed you said more later on in this post which makes it difficult
for me to comment accurately but here goes...
There is nothing wrong with what you are saying as long as you remember
that children are children and thus are still developing, physically,
emotionally, socially, and cognitively.
Your analogy - or whoever's (or should that be whomever's?) - to playing
golf neglects this fact. We can't compare an adult's learning to a
child's to that extent. Children are still developing they don't have
the understanding or the previous knowledge to deal with the same things
an adult does - I think you will agree with me here.
Why do you think that children who are writing and using
invented/transitional/kidspell, or whatever you want to call it,
spelling are not receiving any kind of instruction? This is not true, it
just might not be the so called "traditional/formal" type of instruction
that you may be thinking of.
You say that practising the art of making gibberish on a piece of paper
does not develop language skills any better than would the process of
storytelling or news-time each day.
Charles, what is your knowledge of what language is? Teachers here
would just shudder to hear you say such a thing. Language is just not
reading and writing.
The number one outcome for Language Arts here  (at the Kindergarten to
grade three level at least) is that:
        The student will make connections among the different language
processes (listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing, and
representing).
I have a list of Sample Performance Indicators with matching Report Card
Comments if you would like them too.
I'm sorry I don't have the Junior Outcomes/Indicators Binder that
we are using here.
As for making gibberish on a piece of paper - that would depend on what
grade level we are talking of here. Read on for further comments as I
know you wrote something more of this that I can respond better to.
CB>DT>I have watched 5,6 and 7 year olds children playing soccer.  I don't
  >DT>think they should be allowed to play soccer at such a young age because
  >DT>they have no concept of team work, a concept essential to a good soccer
  >DT>team.  Their ball handling skills are awful and yet these kids are
  >DT>allowed to play in organized games!  Unthinkable!
CB>You stretched the analogy using a variety of examples, but you
  >simply didn't look at the process very carefully.  Does the soccer
  >team have a coach?  Are the kids given instruction before the first
  >game?  Is there coaching throughout the season?  Or are the kids
  >allowed to kick the ball into their own net game after game without
  >anyone telling them to kick it the *other* direction?
I think the problem here is that you and Dan have completely different
ideas/viewpoints of how primary children are taught. Dan is using his
first hand knowledge of whole language and transitional spelling. You
are using what you believe is taught (and maybe IS taught where you are
teaching).
Do the children have a teacher? Are they given any instruction before
the first writing experience? Is there teaching throughout the school
year? Or are the kids allowed to practise time after time without anyone
telling them to what to do?
In answer to my second question, children do not come to school knowing
nothing about the writing/reading experience - even it is not what we as
adults think it should be. They come with the building blocks in place.
Some have better built foundations than others, etc. Let's face it, even
children in soccer have some knowledge of the ball and kicking it before
they arrive.
 CB>Under the auspices of "inventive spelling" the children are
kicking
(Continued to next message)
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