The Tragedy of Dumbed-Down School Texts

Yesterday's blog underlined the importance of language to babies and toddlers - in terms of allowing their brains to develop to their full potential. But of course, as Tunya points out in a recent comment, that's only the first step. Once young children's brains are able to learn, they need to continue to be stimulated, albeit still mainly via auditory stimulation. Click here for an interesting article by Marilyn Jager Adams about the importance of vocabulary and the role of dumbed-down and non-sequential textbooks in impoverishing young children's minds. 

The bad news is that this article was published five years ago, yet nothing has changed. In fact, if anything, the newer textbooks are even more dumbed down and random. It's odd, isn't it, how hard it is to accomplish what everbody knows needs to be done.

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