Betty Peck på 92 er fuld af en strålende skønhed, der leder tankerne hen på fe 
gudmødre og fortryllede haver. At besøge hende er lidt som at falde ned i Alices kaninhul. En togbane med et rigtigt tog kører rundt om hendes hjem i Saratoga. Der er vedbenddækkede vægge, skøre snoede stier, træhuse, endda et Rapunzel-tårn og et amfiteater under træerne komplet med en Romeo og Julie-balkon. Hundredvis af børn har leget i den solplettede å her, begejstret for følelsen af jord under bare fødder og glædet sig over en verden fyldt med kreativitet, skønhed og undren. Dette er den verden, som Betty Peck gav til flere generationer af børn.
Og nu har denne fantastiske lærer et nyt projekt, som hun er dybt begejstret for. Et projekt, som hun beskriver med sine egne ord nedenfor, og som begynder med et simpelt, men dybtgående spørgsmål...
Jeg vil gerne vide, hvordan du lærte at læse.
At lære at læse er det vigtigste, der sker for os, og det sker (for de fleste) i barndommen. Min mand, Willys Peck, lærte at læse ved "The Pooh Method". Her er hans ord om denne fantastiske begivenhed:
Plys metode til indlært læsning
Da jeg var barn, læste mine forældre bøger for mig og min bror. Mine favoritter var bøgerne Winnie the Pooh og The House at Pooh Corner af AA. Milne. Selvom jeg ikke gjorde en bevidst indsats for at lære historierne udenad, fandt jeg ud af, at jeg ved at høre dem flere gange kunne recitere de indledende afsnit fra hukommelsen. En dag mens jeg kiggede på bogen og reciterede den fra hukommelsen, fandt jeg ud af, at jeg opfangede ord ud over dem, der rent faktisk huskes. Det var i det øjeblik, jeg indså, at jeg læste! Derfor kalder jeg det at lære at læse ved Plys-metoden.
Min lære at læse var det vigtigste, der skete for mig i første klasse; det er det, der hjalp mig til at blive den, jeg er. Jeg har skrevet dette op i min bog: Kindergarten Education – Freeing Children's Creative Potential (Hawthorne Press).
Min bedstemor fortalte mig alle eventyrene og børnerimene. Lucky er barnet, der indeholder alle disse ord af gammel visdom. Jeg ville til gengæld blive historiefortæller for mine brødre og søstre.
Jeg husker den dag, jeg lærte at læse. Jeg tror også sammen med John Steinbeck: "Det er måske den største enkeltstående indsats, som mennesket påtager sig, og han skal gøre det som barn." Jeg husker den dag, jeg bar min paperback-bog hjem for at læse min mor, da jeg gik i første klasse. Jeg havde lært at læse! Spændingen over denne forventning om at kunne læse for min mor er stadig med mig.
I min hukommelse satte vi os sammen ikke langt fra hoveddøren. Jeg læste hele bogen for hende med stor glæde og glæde. Da jeg var færdig, sagde hun til mig "Læs det nu baglæns." Hun troede ikke, jeg havde lært at læse! Med mere glæde end før læste jeg hele bogen baglæns. Det var i det øjeblik, jeg havde følelsen af at komme til min ret. Jeg var blevet mere, end jeg havde troet mig selv. Nu ville jeg bruge ordet 'transcenderet' til denne lejlighed, for nu vidste jeg, hvad min mor ikke kunne vide. Jeg, og jeg alene, kendte denne vidunderlige hemmelighed: Jeg havde lært at læse. Jeg havde ikke brug for en fest; at lære at læse var fest nok.
Da mit barnebarn Sarah lærte at læse, spurgte jeg, om et billede af, hvordan hun læste for sin søster, Merina, kunne placeres i børneværelset på vores landsbybibliotek for at fejre, at hun lærte at læse. Billedet blev hængt op for at fejre et af de vigtigste trin i livet, der tilfældigvis falder i barndommen.
Det var biblioteket i Los Angeles i nærheden af vores hus, der nærede min kærlighed til litteratur. Min mor ville læse for mig. Vi læste til sidste øjeblik, at bogen skulle ud, og så skyndte jeg mig afsted til biblioteket på mine skøjter, altid alene. Men det var fru Laverne Perrin, min lærer i syvende klasse på Bel Pasi-skolen, der introducerede mig til verdens store litteratur. Vi skulle lære et digt hver uge. Hun ville læse Sir Walter Scotts værk, og i en anden retning, 'Onkel Toms hytte; var en, hvor vi hang på hvert ord. Hun læste os, jeg er sikker på, alle de ting, hun elskede, for jeg husker hendes store passion for disse bøger. Hver historie var mere end dens ord: den var hele området af historie, kultur, natur, filosofi, religion og psykologi. På grund af denne arv læser og genlæser jeg nu fra flere bøger om dagen, som jeg alle ejer på mit bibliotek.
Læsning er en af de vigtigste begivenheder i et menneskes liv, og det sker i barndommen. Har du nogensinde tænkt på alle de færdigheder, der skal samles for at kunne læse? Denne spændende begivenhed er en gave fra guderne.
Det, vi gør med denne gave, er med til at bestemme, hvem vi er, og som lærer føler jeg mig privilegeret over at hjælpe forældre til børnehaver med at bygge fundamentet for produktive borgere, der vokser op med at elske at læse. Jeg håber, at der kan bygges festligheder og ritualer op omkring den begivenhed, hvor et barn i dag lærer at læse. Det har taget så lang tid at indse, at dette er et magisk øjeblik, der kræver anerkendelse.
Hvordan lærte du at læse? Jeg ville elske at høre din historie.
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12 PAST RESPONSES
My best friend taught me how to read. He was three years older than me. Every day after school in his first year he would come over and show me what he'd learned at school that day using the book Green Eggs and Ham. He died two years ago at age 58, I will miss him for the rest of my life.
I remember walking in to kindergarten and straight for the bookshelf. My beautiful new teacher (who was really 80 years old) said to my mother "oh I see we have a reader on our hands, how wonderful is that"? From that day forward, I have always considered myself just that "a reader" and have always lived up to the expectation of my kindergarten teacher. Thank you Mrs. Quaker!!
Satya Narain Goel
In India Ramayan written by Tulsidas is the most read book. For centuries, generations after generations, the women learned to read to enable them to read the story of Ram and Sita in Ramayan. Apart from religious and spritual side of the epic, which Ramayan is, it has made a tremendous contribution to the reading habits of women in India.
Satya Narain Goel, Jodhpur, Rajasthan. India
I cannot remember a time that I wasn't being read to by my parents. My mother had a gift for reading with accents and regional dialects which enthralled me and my siblings. I had numerous children's stories memorized and then I "read" those to my siblings (I have no recollection of the moment when the memorization became truly reading on my own). My father found children's books read over and over and over quite tedious, but he noticed that children love to sit with you and be read to, no matter what is being read (the special attention given the child is the most important part). So, he read what he liked aloud to me and thus, I heard the Wall Street Journal each evening and learned incredible language skills that have served me all my life! My vocabulary skills were enhanced all while I was having a wonderful time. Two of the ladies who babysat my siblings and me would bring stacks of books and read and read until they were hoarse and on the verge of losing their voices! We all three gathered on the couch and were enthralled all evening long. My, we were so blessed! I still love books and reading and stopping wherever there is a bookstore; bookstores even smell wonderful!
[Hide Full Comment]In Eastern India there is a annual festival called Saraswati Puja which revolves around the deity of learning, Saraswati. When a child is about 3 or 4 years old he or she sits down with other children of the same age and they are shown how to write the first alphabet in the Bengali script. Each child has her/ his own miniature handheld blackboard and chalk and it is a occasion of celebration that the child is progressing away from babyhood and getting ready for formal education. The child feels part of a group and seeing the adults reaction they are also enthusiastic about starting to read the alphabet.
Hi Betty,
My mother read to us from early on. She and I would sit in a big chair together, and she would read to me, annunciating each word clearly. So, I learned to read early on. she took delight in showing me off to the family at christmas time, when I recited "twas the night before christmas," from memory. I believe her strong focus on enunciation helped me learn how to read and spell well.
I was 4 years old. My mother was pregnant with my first little brother and she would take a hot bath every morning. I would sit on the bathroom floor with the newspaper spread out on the floor in front of me with my right hand on her tummy to feel the baby move. She would teach me about roots, prefixes and suffixes, how most words were Greek or Latin in origin. I would stumble through the article she chose and she taught me how to find meaning of words I didn't know through context. She was very strict and a very difficult woman to please, but she raised a true reader. I never read children's books. She never talked "baby talk". She felt that if you learn that way, then you would have to un-learn that to learn "real" language. I was an extremely gifted child and she challenged me, constantly. I don't ever remember anyone reading aloud to me, I read aloud to them.
Amazes me that people can remember when they learned to read. The earliest memory I know of is in second grade for me. I am sure I learned to read before then. Sorry.
Beautiful!
Books were my friends. My father was career Army so we moved every year until I was in high school. I learned to read early. My mother still talks about the day when I was in first grade and the teachers asked me to read a story to the third graders. In high school I spent my summers reading from books picked out from the Book mobile. I loved the Book mobile. I can still visualize the driver who would patiently help me find my books and the coolness of the air inside on those hot days. I read all of the available Agatha Christie novels that summer. Today I am the organizer of a neighborhood book club. We have 13 members. We all have been together for 10 years. We lost one member to cancer and we honor her memory by donating books to a needy cause. Reading has shaped my life.
I was four years old. My Grandmother Quigney taught me to read. Every day she would take a break from work cuddle up in her recliner by the living room window and read. Often she would read aloud to me from Reader's Digest or The Education of Hyman Kaplan or Cheaper by the Dozen. And she would read children's picture books, nursery rhymes and of course Winnie the Pooh. I would follow along trying to decipher the swirls on the page. And then one day it just clicked and I read a book about a pony who tries to keep up with the horses; how fitting. Thanks to my Grandmother's efforts I read Every book in my elementary school library. In adulthood (after jobs in women's health & cancer research), I was a Children's Librarian. I had the blessing of creating an entire program and helping thousands of children develop an appreciation for books and reading.
Today I am a Cause-Focused Storyteller & Literacy Advocate. I sold my home & possessions in 2005 to create/facilitate a volunteer literacy project in Belize; the initial thrust was book drives & reading activities. Since then I've donated programs for 33,000 children & trained 800 teachers how to use their own cultural stories in school. I've just returned from Ghana where I donated literacy training for librarians at 6 library/community centers. All because my Grandma instilled a Passion for books & taught me to read. Thank you for your Passion & sharing the Love of reading.
[Hide Full Comment]I learned to read in school, very early in the first grade. I loved the individual letters and their sounds, so I was using phonics before anyone had even coined the term. I like music and language seemed the same thing to me. The individual letter-noises could be combined to make familiar and unfamiliar words, so when I struck an unfamiliar word I knew that had happened, and wanted to learn what those sound patterns were for. It was all very easy and effortless. I was ready in the first grade, and those were the years before child care and kindergarten. We had a lot of kids in the first and second grades (in one room with one teacher) so I had lots of time to myself to play with the sound combinations and see where they went. I am glad I predated the hubbub of day care and kindergarten. We went to school because we were grown up enough to be allowed to, and it was a huge thrill!