A woman d'un certain age just came into the shop and told me that she thought children's books were far too advanced for them. She claimed to be an English teacher, and as well as saying that children don't understand tenses, she baldly stated that she didn't think a five-year-old could comprehend the words "motivation" ("Owl Babies") or "skittery" ("Bridget Fidget"), or "bad-tempered" ("The Bad-Tempered Ladybird"). Bad-tempered!
She said, "Why not use 'angry' or 'cross'?" Well, because neither of those words actually mean quite the same thing as bad-tempered. I did not say that.
I said I thought she was underestimating children, "And how will children learn synonyms, how will they increase their vocabulary?"
"Oh, none of that counts these days. Vocabulary and punctuation don't count for anything in GCSE or A-Level English." (Actually, I think she said O-Level instead of GCSE).
Gah. Now I'm angry. And I'm not generally a bad-tempered person.
See how they mean different things.
I'm really pleased to have been quoted on the No To Age Banding website. And what I say there applies here too: "How awful for younger children to be restricted to the stories they can read, rather than those they can enjoy."
Thursday, 2 October 2008
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