A Focus On Literacy

It’s now September, and for the last few weeks most North American schools have been trying to attract new and more students to their roster. Everywhere in my city, black mobile sign-boards with their multi-coloured neon lettering have blossomed on the sides of major routes, extolling the virtues of one school over another.

What a school considers a selling point has provided me with drive-time entertainment for a month. One in particular, though, has been bugging me. The signboard is for an elementary school, and exclaims Small school with a focus on literacy!

At first it seems like a well-crafted message. Succinct, and definitely a selling point. But…don’t all schools focus on literacy? Doesn’t any school, anywhere, aim to teach every student how to read? For elementary schools, especially in the lower grades, the three R’s (Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmatic) are pretty much the entire curriculum.

If a school trumpets that they’re focusing on literacy, it’s another way of saying they’re making it a priority. I don’t think I’d be too far off the mark if I generalize and say that the vast majority of parents are under the impression that literacy is already a priority.

Which begs the question; what are the other schools focusing upon instead? Are they so deficient in literacy-teaching ability that this school thinks it’s a value-added enticement that they’re going to teach people to read?

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First appeared on Stories Rule, September, 2008

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© Tracy Cooper-Posey 2008. Cannot be copied or distributed without permission, or without this copyright notice attached.