Dumbing Down Education

I recently bought several books through Scholastic's website's Dollar Days. Ten to be exact. So far, I'm enjoying my purchase, although I haven't read through everything I've received. As most homeschool parents know, books are a weakness of ours. In my case, books have been a weakness since the time I began to read. I remember saving up my money so I could order as many books as possible through school, or so I could fill my arms at the yearly book fair. Now, garage sales capture my attention when I spot boxes or tables loaded with books (I'm not willing to dig through a box full of clothes, but just try to keep me away from a box full of books!).

Last summer, I decided to purchase some of the Junie B. Jones series because I had heard of it and had seen them on the internet, etc. While I was paying for them, the homeowner's daughter said, "Ohh, I loved those books!" However, when I got home and opened the books, I was shocked to find childish sentences filled with words that aren't real words, or words in the wrong places. The sentence structure is appalling, but because I opened the book in front of my daughter, she begged me to read from it. I immediately found myself silently correcting grammar and restructuring sentences. Here is a glimpse from Junie B. Jones and Little Monkey Business:

And so then I got very happy inside. Because maybe I didn't have to eat my stewie pewie tomatoes (2)

Why on earth would someone write books at such a low level--lower than my three-year-old's speech--and thus perpetuate inaccurate word usage, poor grammar, and structural dysfunction? Look at the sentence length! How are our children going to learn to speak properly unless they are shown by example? To me, this is the same at teaching only 2+0=2 all through elementary school because that is as much as the children start out knowing in first grade, so why do more? Obviously, some children speak this way because their parents speak that way, and we shouldn't look down upon them, but we should try to improve our language skills, shouldn't we? Words are powerful, and should be used with care.

Although not all books I choose to read may be on a list of classic texts to share with children, I try to share literature that speaks of courage and morals, truths and honor. I also attempt to read books that have minimal grammar issues. I've been reading the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series to my daughters the past few nights and can't believe the different words the author uses compared with the "literature" of today! At first, I was nervous that my Kindergartner wouldn't understand the stories and grow bored, not knowing what I was talking about and not seeing many pictures. However, I'm trying the classical education method (well, I'm easing into it), which teaches entire texts should be read to children, not just snippets of stories or stories that are below their reading levels. To my surprise, my dd has been enjoying the stories! I've asked her to narrate the story once I finish reading, and she is able to tell me the gist of it just fine. This is leading me to further determination not to raise another Junie B. Jones. Why dumb down her education? I expect more, and therefore, she will give more while realizing that those she loves believe in her.