TWO stories spotted in national newspapers on the same day reveal an interesting facet of life today.
New research showed that children given just 30 minutes of one-to-one literacy help saw their reading age improve by nearly two years. And Schools Minister Jim Knight complained that youngsters are being let down by parents who don’t take the time to help them with their homework.
He blamed “negative attitudes to education” in some of the country’s poorest areas being passed on from parents and grandparents which discouraged children from trying to succeed in school.
Reading is the key to so much development, and spending time helping your children with it — and with general homework — is valuable to both.
We never get that time back when our children are younger and desperately need our input, and it would be very sad if this lack of interest started them on a downward spiral of low achievement and low self-esteem that blighted young lives forever.
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