lew@ihuxr.UUCP (11/19/83)
... Ok, I over-reacted. I guess I was projecting my own image of flashcards as a symbol of rote learning. And Mark is right that I was imagining some sort of Teutonic regimen of constant drill (at least implicitly.) Anyway, it occurs to me that the effect of flashcards should be very similar to what Sesame Street achieves with its letter and number jingles. This really is nothing but drill ... and I have to admit it can certainly be counted as an example of "making learning fun", and quite effectively too. Our children learned the alphabet very early because of Sesame Street, and they are hardly unique. Their elementary school curriculum is definitely ahead of what I experienced. They both had "reading readiness" in kinder- garten. This included word recognition which would seem to count as actual reading. Many of the children were already ahead of this program. I don't think you have to worry about your kid feeling like a freak for being a reader in kindergarten these days. Lew Mammel, Jr. ihnp4!ihuxr!lew