I saw a shrink-wrapped Dorling Kindersley three-volume series: 'How to help your kids with Science', 'How to help your kids with Maths', 'How to help your kids with spelling and grammar'.
Hmmm....
Are these equivalents? Is doing 'science' or 'maths', similar to 'spelling and grammar'. Shouldn't that third one be 'writing' or 'reading and writing'? Something encompassing the whole area of using language? Perhaps the old one 'talking, listening, reading and writing'? (OK, that's too much for the title).
And I thought of a parent spending a tidy little sum on these three books, hoping that this would help their child through SATs, which in turn are devised to 'help' (?) children become literate, to read and write better etc...
Really? How many children given this shrink-wrapped package are really going to read their way through a volume called 'spelling and grammar'?
Now, let me see if I can think of anything else that might help a child to read and write well? er....what's it called...? er.....a book!!! That's it. A book that the child chose to read. That's it! And there's loads of them in a place where you can get them for free. What's that called...? er....oh yes, a library!