CHILDREN TALK THEIR WAY INTO LITERACY

In a literate society, everyone needs to read and write. For some, it is essential for their occupation; for some a form of entertainment; for all, reading and writing are necessary for the transactions of everyday life. It is disturbing, therefore, to know that in contemporary societies there are still many adults who are not sufficiently literate to manage these tasks at a level adequate to their needs. Since the teaching of literacy is one of the major goals of schooling, which is compulsory for all children, it seems reasonable to argue that the fault must lie in the way in which literacy is taught. And, indeed, in many of the world's industrialized countries, new curricula and stricter accountability procedures have been introduced in recent years in attempts to overcome this problem. In many cases, however, the policies that are being implemented, rather than remedying the problem, seem likely to further exacerbate it. In many schools today, reading and writing are treated as ends in themselves and children are given tasks to perform that focus on the "mechanics " of literacy as a set of skills to be mastered quite independently of their immediate use for communicating and thinking about issues that are of intrinsic interest and importance to them. In this context, it i