43. Bootie Zimmer: The Underground HIstory of American
Education by John Taylor Gatto from archive.org
Bootie
Zimmer
The
miracle woman who taught me to read was my mother, Bootie. Bootie never got
a college degree, but nobody despaired
about that because daily life went right along then without too many college graduates. Here was
Bootie's scientific method: she would hold
me on her lap and read to me while she ran her
finger under the words.
That was it, except to read always with
a lively expression in her voice and eyes, to answer my questions, and from
time to time to give me some practice with different letter sounds. One thing more is important. For a long time
we would sing, "A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H,
I, J, K, LMNOP..." and so on, every single day. We learned to love
each letter. She would read tough
stories as well as easy ones. Truth is, I don't think she could readily tell
the difference any more than I could.
The books had some pictures but only a few; words made up the center of attention. Pictures
have nothing at all to do with learning to love
reading, except too many of them will pretty much guarantee that it
never happens.
Over
fifty years ago my mother Bootie Zimmer chose to teach me to read well. She
had no degrees, no government salary, no
outside encouragement, yet her private choice to make me a reader was my passport to a good
and adventurous life. Bootie, the daughter
of a Bavarian printer, said "Nuts!" to the Prussian system.
She voted for her own right to decide,
and for that I will always be in her debt. She gave me a love of language and
it didn't cost much. Anybody could have
the same, if schooling hadn't abandoned its duty so flagrantly.
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