Surprises from going private (tutoring)

I've recently taken a few private students for tutoring which is both fun and quite interesting, and at the same time keeps me a little in touch. The current crop includes G4, G8, G10 and G11 from three different schools and I am apparently English-ing and Math-ing.

Actaually, I quite like Englishing and as far as neologisms go, it's not a bad one.

One thing I've noticed this year is that reading aloud seems no longer to be a thing. The G4 and G8 students just cannot, the G10 and G11 can but are more than rusty. This is of course regrettable. I firmly believe that school, especially PK - G8, should be broad-based and prepare students for a wide range of future possibilities, We can't know what a student's future will hold, but many or perhaps most will at some point need to read something in public and knowing how to pause, breathe, empathise and hold an audience's aattention is critical.

Another not insignificant benefit of reading aloud is that it does focus attention on language, words, units of meaning and so on. And a third, although I cannot find the source, is that research shows (I 'm sure of this) that comprehension and retention of a text are both better if a student has read it aloud.

A second thing which is widely reported and has spawned several YouTube channels, is that students lack general knowledge. In my day, we could name a few other countries, knew about planets and various staple foods, and could even discuss a few presidents. I am told that students today do not need such knowledge, and if perchance they ever should, a quick online search will suffice. I have written, and discussed widely, on the dangers and problems of content-based education, and am no supporter of simply learning "stuff", but what is culture and belonging to society if not having shared knowledge and shared experience? The lack of both among my tutees brings to mind babies and bathwater.

What separates sheep from lambs and wolves from sheep is knowledge (of stuff and of how to do stuff) and we lose sight of this at our peril.

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