ABSTRACT
Philip Pullman is able to write about learning to read and write from the perspective both of a former middle school teacher and of a highly respected author. Rather than teaching children about grammar rules, he argues that the main concern of schools should be with the picture books, stories, poems and songs which are the full realisation of the powers of language. The confidence children need to become readers and writers comes from playing, speculating, and ‘fooling about’ rather than ‘drilling and testing . . . and correcting’.
