Blog Post #3 - Why Can't She Remember That? (Quotes)

          There were three quotes from Terry Meier's "Why Can't She Remember That? The Importance of Storybook Reading in Multilingual, Multicultural Classrooms" that stuck out to me. The first was "She found very few differences between the two groups on quantitative measures of linguistic complexity or in the abstract level of their talk." (242). This was in reference to the comparing the linguistic skills of low-income African American children and middle-class European children. The results found that there were very few differences in the way the children talked and interacted with their classmates. This quote stuck out to me because too easily most people assume that children of different background will think a certain way or will not be able to learn a certain way and keep up with all the other children in class. This is not the case, as this study proves. It's terrible that society groups these children together as separate groups at such a young age and gives one group advantages that the other doesn't have. How can certain groups of people be expected to thrive and be successful in America when they are categorized and stereotyped at such a young age?

          The second quote that had an impact on me was "Each of these preschoolers, socialized in very different linguistic and cultural communities, demonstrates the ability to use language in powerful ways to negotiate relationships with other people and to accomplish his or her social purposes." (243). This was in reference to several different children of different backgrounds using the stories they had read to them to their advantage, such as the girl who dropped her rice cake and recited part of a song so her mother would get it back for her. She realized that simply asking for it back wouldn't accomplish her goal, so she used her charm and sung a cute verse so her mom would get it back for her. This is similar to the African American child who recited a poem created on the spot to escape punishment from his mother. Both cases are amazing to me, that at such a young age children realize how to recite important verses from stories they are being told and apply it to a real life situation. I didn't realize that children had the intellectual ability to do this and I really enjoyed learning that they can perform such a feat.

          The third and final quote that stuck out to me was "Yet no one could argue with the fact that the earlier this experience occurs - the sooner children forge a deep and authentic connection to books - the likelier it is that they will be successful in school." (246). This quote is a constant reminder the importance of books and education in general. Learning to read and write are the important skills a young child needs, but going that deeper level and connecting with a book and applying it to real life, as the children did that were mentioned earlier, has a deep impact on a child and the rest of their life will follow this trend and they will eventually become more and more intelligent.

Brain Development in Young Children