2.5 Years: “E-X-I-T
spells ‘door goes outside.’”
Something clicks in
kids’ brains some time in toddlerhood: they find out that there’s a strange
form of magic that adults all know how to use. Mommy draws a string of lines
and shapes on a calendar, or on a note on the fridge, and later, that same
string of lines and shapes talks to Daddy. It says that school is out on
Tuesday. Or that the power bill needs to be paid tomorrow.
It’s no coincidence that the word “spell” applies both to magic and to the construction of written words. They’re the same thing! We use letters to form messages that would be nothing but meaningless scribble, if we hadn’t all mastered the witchcraft of reading and writing. If I hadn’t been trained in this fine art of magic at an early age, I would only have to assume from context that the lighted sign above a store’s door means that it leads outdoors.
My daughter had reached a rational conclusion. Pre-literate and working only from context, she could only assume that the secret message encoded above the door of the café said “Door goes outside.” She was correct enough—and she was engaging in the first crucial steps toward literacy: recognizing words and having some idea of their meaning. It was years before she could correctly identify that E-X-I-T spells “exit,” but “door goes outside” was close enough for me.
It’s no coincidence that the word “spell” applies both to magic and to the construction of written words. They’re the same thing! We use letters to form messages that would be nothing but meaningless scribble, if we hadn’t all mastered the witchcraft of reading and writing. If I hadn’t been trained in this fine art of magic at an early age, I would only have to assume from context that the lighted sign above a store’s door means that it leads outdoors.
My daughter had reached a rational conclusion. Pre-literate and working only from context, she could only assume that the secret message encoded above the door of the café said “Door goes outside.” She was correct enough—and she was engaging in the first crucial steps toward literacy: recognizing words and having some idea of their meaning. It was years before she could correctly identify that E-X-I-T spells “exit,” but “door goes outside” was close enough for me.
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