Word: y
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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FRESHMAN CROSS COUNTRY participates in ICAAAA at Van Cortlandt Park, N. Y...
ELISABETH MACKAY Ancram, N. Y...
ELEANOR S. WILKIN Olean, N. Y...
...Y Is for Monkey. Yet the children could pronounce and spell those incomprehensible words. Using phonics, they had learned to build from letters to words. The reforms, cresting in the 1930s, played down the meaning of letters and played up the meaning of words. The result was the "look-say" and "whole-word" methods of teaching. Children were supposed to be taught first to "see" words and then break them into letters and syllables, but teachers rarely got around to carrying out the second step effectively...
...sorts of "research" was used to justify the change. The work of such experts as Arthur I. Gates of Columbia's Teachers College seemed to prove that children recognize words by visible "clues." For example, said Gates, the "tail" (or y) at the end of the word denotes monkey to children. Soon children were asked to recognize the "two little eyes" in moon-with logical results. Since letters meant nothing, moon turned into boon, loon or soon. Now, say critics. U.S. children are mired in a whole lexicon of reading errors-bolt for blot, bouquet for banquet, cottage...