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Stalinists? Or They Walked That Way?

Subtitle: Why the US has 50,000,000 Functional Illiterates

In 1955 Rudolf Flesch published a blockbuster called “Why Johnny Can’t Read.” In this still-relevant book Flesch lamented that: “The word method is gradually destroying democracy in this country; it returns to the upper middle class the privileges that public education was supposed to distribute evenly among the people.”

Toward the end of the book Flesch made an intriguing comment: “Mind you, I am not accusing the reading experts of wickedness or malice. I am not one of those people who call them un-American or left-wingers or Communist fellow-travelers. All I’m saying is that their theories are wrong.”

Point is, by 1955 some people were accusing our top educators of being “un-American or left-wingers or Communist fellow-travelers.”

Flesch prefers to put the blame on money. All of the leading Look-say (or Whole Word) authors had a Dick and Jane series and were making millions.

I recently asked Don Potter, phonics crusader, to explain why the Whole Word crowd had attacked phonics. He gave the same answer: “Follow the money.”

I’ve asked another leading expert for his opinion on why the educators hated Flesch so deeply and pushed Whole Word so ruthlessly. His answer: “Our educators are jerks.”

Jerks chasing money? Do you find that a satisfying explanation of motive?

Here’s what we know for sure. Starting around 1931 this country’s Education Establishment forced the Look-say method into nearly all public schools. Note: in the middle of financial collapse, millions of text books were wastefully tossed in the trash.

The new approach had not been tested in a systematic way. Trials should have been conducted in many cities over years. Instead, the educators acted in a sweeping, preemptive way. Businesses and academic fields rarely turn on a dime and charge off in the opposite direction; this happens in totalitarian societies. And that’s what happened with reading in America circa 1931.

Mark the year. The Russian revolution was a fact of history; and its progress was said to be glorious. Meanwhile, the US was falling into a deep depression. All the far-left elements were giddy with confidence that Moscow owned the future. In the 1930’s the Russians had many hundreds of front groups in the US, meddling in every aspect of American culture, certainly including education. (People forget how intense the Cold War was and how intense it would continue to be for decades. This was war for control of the planet. Communist ideology approved every dirty trick.)

The Education Establishment–with considerable see-no-evil cooperation by the major media and elite universities–pushed Look-say as relentlessly as Philip Morris pushed cigarettes. In both cases, there were increasing reports of undesirable side effects.

As early as the 1940s, major magazines ran articles about declining literacy. Look-say proponents mused in a mystified manner about why we could possibly have so many sub-literate children. What a puzzle! However, in 1955 Flesch’s bestseller explained how Whole Word was causing major damage to the country. Samuel Blumenfeld wrote “The New Illiterates” in 1973, making similar points. So the devastation was well-known, and well-explained. Meanwhile, children in parochial and private schools learned to read via phonics in the first few years of school. But guess what? Our Education Establishment did not relent! For my money, what we see here is an extraordinary display of “party discipline.”

Another aspect that stays in my mind is that the Look-say experts concocted irrational explanations and cruel treatments. Life magazine, in 1944, claimed that reading problems might be caused by a range of physical ailments (glandular imbalance, heart disease, eye or ear trouble) or by psychological disturbances. The article described a little girl who was examined at Northwestern University’s reading clinic. Experts said she needed “thyroid treatments, removal of tonsils and adenoids, exercises to strengthen her eye muscles.” The Life article concluded: “Other patients may need dental work, nose, throat or ear treatment, or a thorough airing out of troublesome home situations that throw a sensitive child off the track of normality….these range from alcoholic fathers to ambitious mothers who try to force their children too fast in school.” Irrelevant stuff. Sick stuff. Very sick.

So my judgment is that the people who kept this scam going were total fanatics. But I have a lot of trouble understanding how money could buy that kind of fanaticism, decade after decade. You have to think of people even more orthodox than priests or rabbis, ready to dumb down an entire country, create 50 million functional illiterates, and as well perhaps one million dyslexics. Play your mind over this story. I can see some crazy old Commies doing all these things–people like the Rosenbergs, willing to be executed in silence for the Kremlin.

In any event, the people pushing Whole Word cannot be considered ordinary people. They were a cult. Maybe money explains it for you. Maybe they were just little twerps with no idea how destructive they were. But the entire con is a lot easier to understand if you have 100 people at the top who took some sort of vow.

In short, my take is that these people were Stalinists, or they walked that way.

(For more of this analysis, see “21: A Tribute to Rudolph Flesch”–especially Parts II and III–on Improve-Education.org.)

Bruce Price?s main site is Improve-Education.org. For a quick brief on reading, see “37: Whole Word versus Phonics” on that site. His fifth book is: “THE EDUCATION ENIGMA–What Happened To American Education,? on Amazon.

Creating the Perfect School

As long as there have been schools, people have been asking, “So, how would we create the perfect school??”

I think the answer is obvious. You would not do any of the things that our Education Establishment likes to do. Indeed, you would do the opposite.

I believe I know exactly what they would do. They would sweep through the Warehouse of Current Educational Fads, grabbing stuff off the shelves with drunken abandon. Of course, their school would have Constructivism in all classes, with the teachers as Guides at Their Sides or, even worse, Facilitators. Lots of time would be wasted while students reinvent all of humanity’s discoveries, and teachers ascertain each student’s Prior Knowledge. Always, children would be encouraged to have deep discussions about the little they know, a fad called Critical Thinking. Meanwhile, the children would not learn to read, by using the method called Sight Words. They would not learn how to do arithmetic, by studying the fad called Reform Math. They would be prohibited from really knowing anything, according to the doctrine of No-Memorization. They would learn contempt for accuracy, according to the doctrine that praises Fuzziness. They would all get straight A’s, according to the doctrine of Self-Esteem. They would be made to work in groups, never learning to work independently, according to the doctrine of Cooperative Learning. And to top it off, the faddists would brag that their school teaches 21st-Century Skills! Unfortunately, this last cliche refers collectively to all the other cliches already mentioned.

My own take is that all of these fads are best understood as sound-good marketing slogans, more or less on the level of McDonald’s “i’m lovin’ it.” Who could be against Self-Esteem? Cooperative Learning? Critical Thinking? Multiculturalism? Reform Math? Whole Language? 21st Century Skills? These artful slogans seem designed to make parents believe that something important is going on, and to convince students that they’re not wasting their time at school.

Unfortunately, none of these fads is much concerned with content, substance, facts, or knowledge. Our Education Establishment has a long track record of being gaga about social engineering, but dismissive of intellectual engineering. Predictably, their schools are to education what scooters are to long-distance transportation. As Professor Arthur Bestor noted more than 50 years ago, public schools will never get better, no matter who much money is spent, as long as the Education Establishment retains its hostility to content.

So, how do we create the perfect school, supposing we’re serious about this quest. First of all, we start from a profound love of facts, and a reverence for knowledge, We proceed in a systematic way to teach foundational knowledge, and then to build on that knowledge, wider and higher. With the results that typical students in the seventh grade will know more than the high school graduates that the Education Establishment turns out. Perhaps just as importantly, these young students will know what they do not know, unlike the Critical Thinkers who are encouraged to believe they know everything they need to know.

Throughout history, all the great schools are virtually identical in having great seriousness of purpose. Without that, everything is a joke and a squandering of money. The main improvement we can make on the past is to use the insight that you often accomplish more with carrots than with sticks. A smart school ensures that students have fun. They should look back and say, “Yeah, school was a blast.” I think it’s a matter of keeping things moving, of creating a wave of learning, of being deeply serious but having a light touch, of mixing sports and extracurricular activities in with the academic work, of mixing field trips in with the class work. Mainly, in the digital age we have so many more tools for memorable presentation of information.

I think really successful schools manage a sleight-of-hand, an intentional deception if you will, so that students don’t realize that they’re actually in a very intense academic environment. It surely helps a great deal if a school is like this from kindergarten onward. Young children, treated as little scholars, will grow into the part. They’ll know that facts are fun, and knowledge is power.

Finally, the difference between the good school and the bad school is merely a matter of attitude and perspective. Good schools revere facts and knowledge, and want to inspire that feeling in children. Bad schools ricochet ineffectually from fad to theory to therapy, never committed to the reason that humans built schools in the first place: to transmit the best of the past to the future.

(For a discussion of Foundational Knowledge and other themes related to this article, please see “43: American Basic Curriculum” on Improve-Education.org. For a more sweeping statement of this article, see “38: Saving Public Schools.”)

Bruce Price is an author, artist, poet and education activist. He founded Improve-Education.org, which is now in its fifth year and has become a leading voice for education reform. This site explores many intellectual topics and is especially concerned with reading (see ?42: Reading Resources?). Article summary: To create a perfect school, avoid the common educational fads. Focus instead on basics, content, knowledge, and mastery.

What to Do When Public Schools Hide Failure

Here’s the problem, and some things we can do about it.

The public schools are geniuses at Chatter. That would mean proposals, press releases, announcements, alibis, pedagogical breakthroughs, denials, new methods, claims, innovations, sophistries, statistics, excuses, reorganization schemes, cover-ups, revised test scores, lies, explanations, more excuses.

What the public schools are not good at, unfortunately, is Content. That would mean such mundane things as where Spain is on a map, what snow is, how much 5 x 7 is , the Civil War occurred in what century, in what direction did Columbus sail when he left Spain, what are the names of the oceans, how many quarts are in a gallon, where is the Eiffel Tower, how many stars are on the American flag, at what temperature does water freeze, name a country in the southern hemisphere, Shakespeare did what?

That old expression “all talk and no action” perfectly describes the surreal world that exists in many public schools. There is such a frenzy of activity, you might suppose yourself to be in Times Square. I’m more and more convinced that much of this activity is hollow and best described as the Big Pretend.

I’ve been obsessed with this counterintuitive finding for years. First, how could we ever explain it?? Well, this turned out to be much easier than I thought. The historical record, I discovered, is starkly clear. Starting a century ago, John Dewey and all of his successors (i.e., the current Education Establishment) showed little regard for Content. Instead, they wanted to prepare America’s children for socialism. They wanted cooperative kids, not academic achievers. Throughout the past hundred years, parents have demanded Content; and all that time the top educators have played a sly game of delivering as little as possible, in conformity with Dewey’s philosophy.

What can we do about this perverted situation where empty Chatter is king, and true Content is rabble? Ideally, we would have a change of regime at the very top, at Teachers College et al. Barring such luck, we need a lot more of what I call Parallel Education, which is everything done OUTSIDE of the public schools to compensate for the bad job done INSIDE the public schools.

Already this activity is vast and multi-faceted. Learning centers, tutoring services, educational TV, and self-help books are big business. Homeschooling occurred mainly in response to inferior public education. One might think the Education Establishment would be embarrassed by all the frenzy they have caused. Be that as it may, they’re don’t appear sufficiently embarrassed to do a better job. Clearly, we need more Parallel Education.

But here’s a big problem. Parents often don’t know how to judge what is happening in the local school. When should parents initiate Plan B? Grade inflation conceals many a sad reality. Children can slip several years behind. This phenomenon is perhaps the single greatest sin committed by the country’s public schools.

I started wondering, suppose parents had simple benchmarks by which to judge the progress of their children. Really simple guidelines, comparable to “walk by two, talk by three.” Basically, we want to establish REASONABLE MINIMUMS below which children would not be allowed to fall.

My first shot at creating such benchmarks is called “43: American Basic Curriculum” (ABC). This is very simple material. Every reader will think of improvements; but please don’t get bogged down in details. We need to specify, but briefly, the approximate levels that children should reach at each grade of their education. The benchmark for 2nd grade math is simply this: “Count to 50; add and subtract 2-digit numbers”

American Basic Curriculum gives parents more insight and control. They can compare notes. Can your child do this? Can your child do that?

“43: American Basic Curriculum” can be found on Improve-Education.org. This three-part article includes a discussion of Parallel Education, and the importance of Foundational Knowledge.

Bruce Price is an author, artist, poet and education activist. He founded Improve-Education.org, which is now in its fifth year and has become a leading voice for education reform. This site explores many intellectual topics and is especially concerned with reading (see ?42: Reading Resources?).

Bad Education Considered As Neurotoxin

More than a century ago, Maria Montessori reached a brilliant insight. Observing children at a mental institution, she wondered: “Suppose we created a lush, sensuous, mentally-jazzed environment that constantly challenged, provoked and inspired these young minds…?”

Montessori acted on her insight. She created a new kind of school for supposedly retarded children. Very quickly, her students were equal to “normal” children. She became the toast of Europe; as she deserved to be. Montessori’s vision has to inspire all true educators.

Unfortunately, American education, for a century, has followed exactly the opposite path from Montessori’s. Our public schools are based on a model of intellectual minimalism and deprivation.

The first question asked by John Dewey–and all agree that he is the Father of American Education–was this: how much content can we toss out the window? The second question was just as destructive: how can we teach school subjects so that all students remain more or less at the same stage?

For Dewey the goal was never primarily an educational one, but a political and ideological one. He wanted cooperative children who work and play well together, who don’t strive to get ahead, who are nearly interchangeable. Dewey hated the thought of an individualistic or superior child. He wanted to create cookie-cutter C-students who would welcome socialism. To do this, he and his followers devised what might be called the anti-Montessori classroom. The only positive stimulation was to come from group activities. Other than that, Dewey’s classrooms, behind the contrived festiveness, were to be academically slow and stunted. The results would inevitably be numbing for many young minds.

None of this is subtle or arguable. If you confine children or animals to an intellectually sterile environment, day after day, these creatures will hardly develop at all. Indeed, they will probably devolve. A lot of energy will to be wasted on frustration, anger, resentment, and what might be called cognitive hunger. Children wouldn’t have names for any of this. The children would merely shrivel inwardly and slowly wither.

Tragically, much of the genius of American Education has gone into devising dozens of methods that sound scientific or otherwise impressive; but in practice they don’t work. That is, they don’t work from the perspective of students and parents. They seem to work just fine from the perspective of the top professors at schools of education. This perversity is so counterintuitive that you never stop being amazed by it. The facts, however, are clear.

Consider the one best example of education gone bad. Whole Word was always sold to the public as “modern” whereas “dear old phonics” was dismissed as quaintly obsolete. Sounds good until we tally up the 50,000,000 functional illiterates and 1,000,000 dyslexics created by Whole Word. I would say that Whole Word is the purest expression of bad education as neurotoxin.

Pause for a moment to consider the massive project required to create this bogus pedagogy, and then to enlist the parade of professors who would vouch for it, and finally to indoctrinate the tens of thousands of teachers who would be sent out to sell this non-starter to parents. Dewey’s Gang was basically staging a slow-motion coup; it unfolds to this day.

Rudolph Flesch, in 1955, wrote something very haunting: “The word method is gradually destroying democracy in this country; it returns to the upper middle class the privileges that public education was supposed to distribute evenly among the people. The American Dream is, essentially, equal opportunity through free education for all. This dream is beginning to vanish in a country where the public schools are falling down on the job.”

John Dewey and his people hoped, in effect, to reverse the American Revolution. Our stated national goal was to provide universal education, to give ordinary people the scholastic blessings that had once been enjoyed only by the aristocracy. All of this was unfolding on schedule in the late 1800s. And then came Dewey. In the name of his ideology, he was willing to dumb down an entire country, to propagate “neurotoxins” falsely labeled as education. Discarding all of his dishonest ideas should be our first order of business.

For Dewey and his ilk the operative phrase was “social engineering.” I would argue that the operative words should be “intellectual engineering.” No matter whether kids are gifted or slow, they are best served by Montesorri’s insight that all children develop most quickly in a challenging, cognitively enriched environment. Dewey’s disgraceful goal was to crush all children down to the same average size. Thanks for the neurotoxins, John. But enough already. What we need is education as neuroenhancer.

(For more on Whole Word, see “42: Reading Resources” on Improve-Education.org.)

Bruce Price is an author, artist, poet and education activist. He founded Improve-Education.org, which is now in its fifth year and has become a leading voice for education reform. This site explores many intellectual topics and is especially concerned with reading (see ?42: Reading Resources?).

How to Understand Your Private Pilot Training

In most cases your Private Pilot License Training will take somewhere around two or three months. An accerated private pilot license course can be completed in as little as 3 weeks or so. There are things that will hold you back if you aren’t prepared.

The first thing you need to know is there are two parts to your Private Pilot Training. There are Aeronautical Experience and Aeronautical Knowledge areas ( Flight Instruction) portions of each phase of your flight training.

There are three phases to your private pilot training that you will need to understand. You will need to understand that there are both Aeronautical Knowledge and Aeronautical Experience requirements. The better understanding you have of the process before you start, the more successful you will be on fulfilling your dream of learning to fly.

The first part of your Private Pilot Training is the pre solo phase. This phase you will learn to basics of flying an airplane. Since you have been driving a car most of your life, this phase of training will be the most difficult for most private pilot students. Once you are through this phase, you will have confidence in yourself and you will be able to conduct solo flights limited by your flight instructor.

The pre solo phase of your private pilot license will also have an aeronautical requirement that you will have to meet also. There is a Requirement for a Pre Solo Written Test included. The focus of this pre solo exam will focus on the aircraft and airspace you have been training in and will be written by your flight instructor.

The next part of your Private Pilot License Training is the post solo or cross country phase. This phase of your private pilot license training, you will focus on different types of landings, night flying and instrument flight. Most of this phase of your private PIlot License Training will be solo flights, you will need this time to meet the private pilot requirements.

This part of your training does not have any specific requirements for aeronautical knowledge, however you should have your private pilot written test completed before you get into the flight test preparation phase of your training.

The final phase of your pilot training will be the flight test preparation phase. In this phase you will focus on the outline for the private pilot practical test known as the practical test standards.

The Private Pilot written test will need to be completed before you are eligible to take the test. There are 60 multiple choice questions on the written test required by the Federal Aviation Regulations.

The Private Pilot Practical Test Standards is the FAA’s outline for your practical test. Broken down into Tasks and Areas of Operation, this will be a guide for you that is published by the FAA. This will be the outline that the pilot examiner will use to conduct your flight test.

Once you have completed your Private Pilot Practical test, your Private Pilot License will be good for the rest of your life. Understanding the private pilot training process before you start flying is one of the best things you can do.

Hope to see You in the Sky

Airfreddy

Frederick Longe has been flying since 1985. He has logged over 9,000 Hours of flight instruction alone. In 1998 Longe was awarded one of the first Master CFI Designations in the country by the National Association Of Flight Instructors. Airfreddy’s Private Pilot License Information Website

Twelve Tips to Help Parents Cut College Costs

Who isn’t feeling the economic crunch? College funds have dwindled, investments have taken a hit, and job layoffs continue to add to feelings of economic instability. Parents with children headed to college this year or next are wondering how to cut college costs. It has led some families to discourage their children from applying to schools they don’t feel they can afford, even with financial aid and scholarships. Paying for college is a real concern.

Here are twelve tips to help parents cut college costs:

1. Encourage high school students to study hard and make the best grades possible in challenging classes. Students should also try to get the best SAT and ACT scores. This may require test prep or tutoring, but it is worth the money. Often times merit scholarships are based on grades and test scores. Scholarships are a great way to help pay for college.

2. Start searching for scholarships early in high school. Many are available to students from 9th through 12th grade. Look into organizations that sponsor scholarships such as Rotary Clubs and the Elks. Even if the scholarship is a small amount, it may help to pay for books and supplies. This helps cut college costs.

3. Make sure students meet all deadlines for signing up for the SAT and ACT as well as for college applications and scholarships. Don’t incur late fees or lose out altogether. Those $16 late fees add up and don’t help to cut college costs.

4. Look at schools where your student can graduate in four years. Most students take five or six years. This can add two additional years of tuition and living expenses. Schools that are committed to seeing their students graduate in four years can save you a lot of money.

This may cut college costs more than anything.

5. Help students find schools that are a good match. Transferring to another school can lead to lost credits and additional expenses. Educational consultants are experts at helping students find schools that are a good fit and where they will want to spend four years. To find qualified consultants in your state, go to http://www.hecaonline.org.

6. Consider a wide variety of schools, including both public and private. Some families have found private schools can actually cost less than some public universities. Private schools are also a lot more generous with financial aid and scholarships.

7. Borrow all the federal money you can before turning to bank loans. Money that does not need to be paid back is what you should go after first.

8. Help your student find textbooks that are used by looking online. Students sometimes can even share a book with another student. It’s amazing how expensive books can be and how this can cut college costs.

9. Explain unusual circumstances to the financial aid director in a letter or negotiate a financial aid package. Most colleges want to help you find ways for your student to attend their school.

10. Allow your student to take more responsibility for his or her education by contributing summer earnings or money made from part-time jobs for college expenses. This usually makes students a lot more serious about their education and paying for college.

11. Consider a community college. Students can take their core requirements and then transfer to a four year school or add to their college credits by taking courses in the summer. Community college is a real bargain and makes a lot of sense. Community colleges are less expensive and can cut college costs.

12. Teach your college-bound student to budget for weekly, monthly, and yearly expenses. This is an important lesson that will last a lifetime and cut college costs before they begin.

The dream of going to college doesn’t need to turn into a nightmare. No one wants a student to be saddled with debt, but there are creative ways to avoid that, and cut college costs. Take time to research all of your options so that your student can have the best college experience possible. The earlier you start the better.

Susie Watts is an educational consultant and assists students with their college search, applications, and cutting college costs. She is a test prep coach and provides tutoring, classes, and an online course. To find out how College Direction can help your student, go to http://collegedirection.org

SAT and ACT Test Scores Are Important Criteria For College Admissions and Scholarships

Students will be taking the most important tests in their high school career sometime in the next few months. SAT and ACT scores are among the top three criteria for college admissions at the majority of schools. When students do well on these tests, it can greatly improve their college opportunities and chances for scholarships. It is much easier to improve a student’s test scores than it is to improve their GPA. These tests are coachable and when students learn the necessary strategies and gain some invaluable practice, they can increase their scores.

With this in mind, wouldn’t it make sense for high school juniors to prepare for these tests before they take them for the first time? Too often students think that test prep is something that is not necessary. They feel they can do whatever test prep they need on their own. Most, however, do not take the time or have the discipline to do enough to make a difference. Recent studies show that earlier critics now agree that test prep works and can make a difference in a student’s performance. Even the College Board and ACT, publishers of the two tests, provide test prep materials for students to purchase. Test prep has become a big business, but you can help your student prepare for these tests by finding affordable and effective courses or tutoring.

Many parents listen to college representatives who tell them that they look at each college applicant in a “holistic manner” and that test scores are not a big deal. However, research shows that more than 70% of colleges and universities consider SAT and ACT test scores a significant factor in college admissions. Too many students are rejected from colleges because of low test scores. Many lose out on merit scholarships because their test scores are not high enough.

Students often find the SAT and ACT tests intimidating. They seem very unlike anything they have studied in school. In addition, the tests are timed and the race to finish each section can be very frustrating. Students need to become familiar with the tests and gain practice on the types of questions that are asked. They must learn to work within the allotted time frame and find out which questions they should tackle or skip depending upon the section and their strengths and weaknesses. Students need to practice, review, and practice some more to gain confidence in their test-taking abilities. They also need to find ways to cope with the stress that accompanies these tests and can adversely affect their test scores.

Parents should look into their test prep options early and decide which is best for their high school junior. There are good test prep courses and tutoring available in your community that are not expensive and do not require five or six hours a week of a student’s participation. A course should have no more than twelve students and the teacher should be an experienced test prep coach, not just someone who has scored well on the tests. Students should practice on real SAT and ACT tests, not samples that are developed by a test prep company. It doesn’t make sense to practice on anything but the real test.

The SAT and ACT need to be kept in perspective. Students do not need to be in a test prep course that takes time away from their high school classes and studying or other important activities they enjoy. Each student is more than a test score. However, by not giving your student the benefit of some good test prep, you could hurt his or her college opportunities or qualifying for merit scholarships that are based on test scores.

Susie Watts is a college consultant who assists students with their college search and the college application process. She offers college counseling to help students become stronger college applicants. She is also a test prep coach and provides tutoring, small classes, and an excellent online course. To see how College Direction can help your student, go to
http://www.collegedirection.org.

What is Archaeology?

Archaeology is the study of the human past from its material remains, and therefore can make use of every conceivable subject in both arts and science. This factor gives it wide appeal and allows everyone to be involved.

However, it also inevitably means that nobody can “know it all”. Much confusion seems to arise over archaeology’s relationship to history which, although also a wide-ranging study of the past, is (for periods prior to the 20th century) primarily concerned with the written word. History forms the basic framework of study since the past is divided into prehistoric (before history) and historic periods.

When did history begin?

Historical dates are provided by documentary sources, which (obviously) presuppose the use of writing. However, not all writing can be proven to represent words or sentences and not all societies with writing used it to record events – sometimes it was used for magical purposes.

Writing has been found on many different materials – papyrus, paper, stone, metals, pottery, vellum and wood – and was developed independently in different parts of the world.

Writing seems to have been pioneered in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) in the 4th millennium BC. In Europe, although some tablets with unintelligible markings were found in a pit at La Tartaria in Romania, dating from circa 4,500 BC, these are now seen as connected with cult activities. If this is interpretation is accepted, no writing was employed in Europe until the rise of the Aegean civilisation of Bronze Age Greece and even then, the tablets in the scripts known as Linear A and Linear B (which date from circa 1600 BC and earlier) provide information that remains enigmatic.

In Britain, the first certain historical date is 55 BC, the year in which Julius Caesar crossed the Channel, writing a detailed account of his campaigns and descriptions of his adversaries. Where it has been possible to cross-check his accounts (for example at Alesia where the Gaulish leader Vercingetorix was finally besieged), they have been seen to be usefully accurate.

Doesn’t history tell us enough without archaeology?

Since history is almost exclusively concerned with the written word there are limits to the information that it can provide. In many periods of the past, literacy was uncommon and reserved for a few sectors of society – typically (in Western world, for example) priests and the rich. As a result history often strongly reflects the preoccupations of these groups and is generally uninformative about the rest of the population.

Many written records survived by chance and others exist only in copies that were made in later times; some exist only as fragments. Some written material was kept in libraries in Constantinople (Byzantium, now Istanbul) and became more widely available after the fall of the city to the Turks in 1453.

There are however, very few surviving original records of events in Britain during the Roman period or its immediate aftermath. Even where copies survive, information has sometimes been added or deleted by the copyist to serve a particular purpose, or perhaps to try to make sense of material that seemed incorrect. It is often impossible to prove whether the record is reporting a true occurrence.

As a result there are many gaps in historical evidence, by period, or intent, type or survival. However, because of the differences in raw material, it is rarely possible for history and archeology to provide evidence for the same aspects of society, even for periods with a large of written material.

Archaeology is therefore of special importance in studying remote, non-literate or semi-literate periods for which there are few or no written records. Increasingly, archeology is used to study aspects of life in well-documented periods that were simply not written about directly (for example, the daily life of ordinary people).

Archeology routinely throws light on aspects of the past on which documentary sources are largely silent, such as technology or types of everyday objects that were in use in particular communities.

Seattle University Archaeology department and Seattle town car service offer guided tours to the history of our world. Seattle airport transportation provide limousine transfer from Seattle Tacoma International airport to University of Washington Archeology faculty.

Tips On Finding University Scholarships And Other Funding

When considering your career, it is also important to think about the education. Many businesses will not hire without a college education. Canada offers many wonderful universities to choose from for furthering your education. If you are worried over how to pay for a college education, there are many options to choose from such as scholarships or a work program.

The work study programs offered through a university will give you employment on the campus and the part of the money you earn will be used for financing classes. It is a great way to gain experience and pay for your education.

Another option is to apply for grants. The grants are government money you apply for to help with financing your education. A grant will normally pay for an entire semester of classes as well as books. The grants are not required to be paid back and you can receive a grant for each semester.

Student loans are also available, however, these need to be repaid so should be used as a last resort for financing. If you do not complete the education and drop out at any time, you will be required to immediately begin repayment.

A scholarship is an excellent way to fund your education. They are sometimes in small amounts so you may have to apply for several or you can apply for them as well as other means of paying for the classes. Scholarships are available in vast amounts for a large variety of options such as the school you choose or some are available only to women or those of a specific ethnic background. Many times while in high school scholarships will be offered for good grades or specific sport programs.

A good education is important in Canada and the country is very good about the funding’s they offer. The universities are excellent in Canada as well. There is funding available through various means such as writing a good essay and doing well on an entrance exam.

The sooner you begin to research the funding possibilities to continue your education the more options you will have. Each university will have additional funding available and they vary according to the school.

If you have been a stay at home mom or are now retired, it is still a perfect time to further your education. It is not unusual for many older adults to go back and complete their educations that they were unable to complete earlier. The best time to go is straight from high school, however, for many that is not possible. There are many funding options available for older adults returning to college.

While in high school getting a position as a volunteer is a great way to seek out possible options for careers. A great many of the businesses that hire volunteers will also provide funding for educations if you continue to work with them following graduation.

There are many excellent choices for Canadian universities and many different available scholarships. The more applications and essays you write, the larger your odds are of getting additional funding for school. For more options go online and search college funding and begin filling out the numerous responses you will get.

Need money for college and university? The Internet is a great resource in finding these opportunities! There are scholarships available for Toronto preparatory school and Toronto prep school.

Follow These to Learn to Speak English

The acquisition of a language is not simple, whether it’s your first language or a second one. Regardless of what a lot of non-native English speakers the world over like to think, learning English is not easy, either. Those who wrongly think that to learn to speak English isn’t difficult will find out quickly how wrong they are.

First, learning English at a basic, communicative level is admittedly not as difficult as learning some languages is. So many people around the world speak English that many different accents and pronunciations are found even amongst native speakers. Because it’s often easy to pick up conversational English, people make the mistake of thinking learning English is easy.

Second, there are many rules in English. Both grammar and sentence must adhere to strict rules. But nearly every rule has exceptions. And these exceptions often have no discernible logic to them. So, English has lots of flexibility, as well. This leads to many inconsistencies in when and how the rules are enforced. And it makes rote memorization impossible as a method to learn English.

Next, the pronunciation is also inconsistently followed. Because of its fluidity, pronunciation can differ greatly within even nearby regions of native-speaking countries. But mastering English pronunciation is essential to successfully mastering the language. Because of the fluidity, however, mastering the pronunciation is hard. It takes practice and diligence. And then more of each.

A fourth difficulty is recognizing the correct structure, grammar, and vocabulary usage, even when what is correct doesn’t necessarily sound right. An example is split infinitives. It is taught in English class not use split infinitives, yet split infinitives are common in spoken English. This is because they’re often used for emphasis or because it’s thought to sound better.

A fifth issue is knowing when to use colloquial English and when to use proper English. Because celebrities often use proper English wrongly, this isn’t easy. Many who are learning pick this up and then try to imitate. On the other hand, many professionals or academics don’t know how to use slang or speak colloquially.

A sixth problem when studying English is the language “masters” out there claiming that theirs is the best method for learning English fast. This is false, regardless of what scientific facts they present showing how effective their curriculum is. Don’t listen to these charlatans. Learning English, as with learning any language, is not easy and learning it properly takes time, patience, practice, and good teaching.

Finally, English is a fun language. Listening to non-native speakers is not difficult for native speakers. We’re used to hearing a variety of accents from our fellow native speakers. Therefore, if you intend on learning to speak English, even the barest of efforts will allow you even basic communicative abilities.

On the other hand, if you want your skills to progress, it will require what all things require in order to master them. A stable base of the rudimentary, daily pronunciation practice, acquisition of new vocabulary every day, and not being afraid of making mistakes. Remember, though, learning to speak English is not simple. However, it can seem easy if you work hard.

online english lessons and business english lessons offered by native speakers.

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