The Economist - USA (2021-07-10)

20 The Economist July 10th 2021
Letters

The ABCs of education

Regarding “The reading wars”

in teaching (June 12th), effec­

tive early reading instruction

does indeed include direct and

explicit phonemic awareness

(sound discrimination) and

phonics (sound to letter

correspondence) applied to a

limited vocabulary of high

frequency words. But these

alone are insufficient for the

transition to fluent academic

reading. Such fluency depends

not only on the basics but also

on vast and deep pools of

vocabulary knowledge. Vocab­

ulary learning unfolds gradu­

ally over time and is generally

not given enough attention in

schools. Whereas a daily news­

paper requires about a grade­

nine reading level (14­15 years

old) The Economistis written

minimally at undergraduate

degree level, and requires a

firm grip of vocabulary breadth

and depth.

Literacy learning is a com­

plex endeavour. Instruction

needs to be explicit, program­

matic, developmentally pro­

gressive and sustained over

time as children become adept

at word study and morphology.

Good word­attack strategies

include phonics (sound the

word out: p­ o­ ll­ u­ tion) and

knowledge of Greek and Latin

root words (transcribe, trans­

mit, transport). All of this can

be engaging and fun, too.

Children delight in the sheer

joy of documenting and shar­

ing their thoughts and opin­

ions, and in their growing

sense of agency when they

master reading and writing.

Humans are not evolution­

arily wired for literacy devel­

opment (literacy is a relative

latecomer, existing for only

5,000 years or so). This means

repurposing primitive models

for pattern recognition and

categorisation; sequences, size

and shape, for example, in the

service of letter recognition,

spelling and numeracy. Start­

ing at an early age, play with

blocks, puzzles, loose parts,

pencils and crayons, scissors

and paper help lay the founda­

tions for literacy by engaging

the hand­brain complex and

creating the neuro­circuitry

andmusclememoryformean­

inganddevelopment.Barking

atthepagewithoutmaking

meaningoftheprintdoesnot

ensuresustainedreading

comprehension.A balanced

approachisnecessary.

professorhettyroessingh

WerklundSchoolofEducation

UniversityofCalgary

Expandthereserves

AsanAmericannavalofficer

andaviatorwitha combina­

tionofactivedutyandreserve

serviceyourarticleonmilitary

reservistscaughtmyattention

(“Notyourdad’sarmy”,June

19th).Capableandready

reserveforceswillremainvital

fornationalandcollective

defence.Thereissimplyno

propersubstituteandany

attempttoworkaroundthis

realityisdangerouslyfoolish.

Oneofthegreatestchal­

lengesformilitarychiefsisto

recruittrainedandrapidly

availablepersonnelacrossthe

spectrumofcapabilities,rang­

ingfromlogisticsandmess

services(anarmystillrunson

itsstomach)tostealth­fighter

pilotsandcyberwarfare.

Relativelyfewcitizensof

Westerncountries(America

andBritainarenotablehere)

haveserved.Thislackofa

directconnectiontomilitary

servicewillfurtherdiminish

aninterestinthearmedforces

byyoungerpeople.Itisa

concerning,downwardspiral,

thougha returntoconscrip­

tionisunlikely.Reservistsin

significantlyexpandednum­

bersandcapabilitiesmaybea

practicalandnecessarymeans

ofcounteringtheseadverse

trends.

jeffreypetit

Commander

usNavyReserve(Retired)

SanDiego

Mid-week special

Bartleby’s column (June 19th)

on picking the best days to

work from home prompted a

memory from my time work­

ing in the Soviet Union in 1976.

I bought a chess timing­clock

from a store in Moscow, which

did not work. When I told my

Soviet colleagues, one of them

wantedtoknowwhatdayof

theweekit wasmadeon?

Duringthatera,appliances

leftthefactorywitha ticket

indicatingthedayoftheweek

theywereassembled.Knowl­

edgeableshopperswould

checkthoseticketsandknew

toavoidproductsmadeona

Mondayora Friday:Friday

workerswerethinkingofthe

weekendandMondayworkers

werehungover.Qualitypro­

ducts,if atall,werelikelyto

havebeenmadeona Tuesday,

WednesdayorThursday.

philiprakita

Philadelphia

Ditchingcolonialties

YourobituaryofKenneth

Kaunda(June26th)was

informativeandfair.However,

thefoundingpresidentof

Zambiamighthavefoundthe

photographyouusedofhim

wearinga tietobeinsulting.

In 1968 thehousein

Chilenje,Lusaka,wherethe

Kaundafamilyhadliveddur­

ingpartofthestrugglefor

independencecontaineda

displayillustratingitshistory.

AsdirectoroftheZambia

monumentscommission,I

accompaniedthethen­presi­

dentona tour.Seeinga pho­

tographofhimselfsimilarto

thatinyourobituary,hesaidto

me:“Irememberthatocca­

sion.ItwasthelasttimeI wore

a necktie.I resolvedthat,once

Zambiaisfree,I wouldnever

dosoagain.”

SofarasI amaware,he

neverdid.

professordavidphillipson

Skipton,NorthYorkshire

Facts and fictions

Your review of Alberto Angela’s

biography of Cleopatra and the

phenomenon of imaginative

“history” writing (“Missing

pieces”, June 12th) raises an

intriguing issue of intellectu­

al­property law. Copyright

protects creations of the mind

but it does not protect histori­

cal facts. So what happens

when a historian presents the

fruits of his or her imagination

as fact? Is there copyright in

such creations?

The Federal Court of Cana­

da considered this recently in a

lawsuit where the author of a

historical book was alleged to

have infringed copyright in an

earlier book purporting to tell

the “true story”. Both books

were about the Black Donnel­

lys, a notorious Irish Catholic

immigrant family involved in a

violent feud that led to the

killing of five of its members

by a mob in 1880. The heirs of

the author of the original book

argued that the later book

copied fictional embellish­

ments in the original. The

author of the later book argued

that he assumed the embel­

lishments were factual be­

cause they were credibly pre­

sented as such and that, since

he used different words to tell

the same story, he couldn't

fairly be accused of copyright

infringement. 

The court agreed, ruling

that copyright does not protect

plausible assertions of facts,

no matter how imaginative

they later turn out to be. The

court distinguished this from

tales like “Gulliver’s Travels” or

“The Blair Witch Project”,

where representations that the

story is “true” are clearly just

for fun. 

It is a sensible decision.

After all, as your review noted,

all that “history” has ever been

is what others, like Tacitus or

Herodotus, say happened,

whether it actually happened

or not.

john simpson

Principal

Shift Law

Toronto

I see nothing wrong with

writers using their imagina­

tion to make classical histories

readable. As Pliny the Younger

observed in ancient Rome,

“There is no lack of readers and

listeners; it is for us to produce

something worth being writ­

ten and heard.”

dave glantz

Fairfax, Virginia

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