The children in my vignettes, dealing with meaningful texts and real purposes, are becoming literate across print, television and computers. Most good teachers develop literacy programs that draw on children's experience of these media. Not surprisingly, some children, becoming confused about what counts as reading and writing, may fail a LAP test, but what they fail may neither be a literacy that they need, nor one relevant to their world. Finally, there have been significant changes in teacher-education for primary literacy teachers. Inadequate teacher-preparation can only compound programming and assessment problems.
Most children have the potential to be highly literate.
Before imposing artificial bonds on children learning by delaying instruction, narrowing their experience of what it is to be literate, or by excluding certain experiences from school thereby rendering them less relevant to children for whom those experiences are culturally significant, we need to examine our programs for literacy education. Tests and school programs need to be evaluated to ensure that they are efficiently assisting all children to develop the literacies they need for their futures. Kay Moulton is a senior lecturer in education at Deakin University. The Age Company Ltd 2000. Any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.