Alphabet Soup

I always wanted to be a teacher. By six I settled on education as my vocation and never changed my mind again. The age-level choice evolved over the years, but I knew that the world of chalkboards (now whiteboards) and grade sheets (now Excel spreadsheets) was where I belong. My first teaching experience was corralling all the unsuspecting kids from the neighborhood to come to my “school” on weekends and summer vacations. Since the internet was still just a big military secret, television had only three channels, and “handheld games” actually meant checkers or Candyland, they were enthusiastic at first. Until I assigned real homework at my pretend school. After that, I had to catch ‘em young or not at all. Another early teaching experience has stayed with me all this time. I spent two years teaching preschoolers basic kindergarten readiness. One of the most surprising and sad aspects of the job was realizing that, although they could reach the highest level of any video game, some of them couldn’t even recognize the first letter of their own name. How did that happen? How could their caretakers let it happen? It wouldn’t be a problem if they were Shaker children, apparently. To avoid the very deficit of which I speak, the Shakers long ago developed the Shaker Abecedarius to teach each child their letters by rote. A Peaceable Kingdom, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen, makes learning the alphabet as easy as A, B, C.

http://www.amazon.com/Peaceable-Kingdom-Shaker-Abecedarius-Picture/dp/0140503706

http://www.jstor.org/pss/27546611