Why aren’t all schools using the best reading method ever (phonics)?
Did you know that teaching children to read by sight-word methods (look-say, whole-word, your-baby-can-read) -
- can lower their IQ?
- can cause dyslexia?
- is the main reason that our educational system has been on the decline for several decades, now?
Why would schools want to teach gifted and normal children to read like defective children?! Again I say, "If your baby can read by sight-words now, s/he may struggle with reading as an adult!"
Here is an article showcasing several interviews on Oprah that show the public school statistics, and they're not pretty. Even private schools or home schools
that use the sight-reading method can set children back for years, often unrecoverably.
A majority of U.S. schools are firmly entrenched in the sight-reading and discovery methods that don’t work. They bought into the propaganda of Frank Smith and others, then legislated it into law.
But I believe in reason over rhetoric; data over dogma. The educational world’s theories FAIL under the rigors of scientific proof (so they ignore the proof)!
A research team headed by scientists from the esteemed Yale School of Medicine announced in 2004 a particularly significant finding for children who have trouble learning to read. It was reported by Gilbert Zarate in the Brownsville Herald:
In the words of the reporter:
“The study reported that [with MRI scans] the brain function of poor readers actually changes to resemble the brain function of “good” readers when they have been taught to read through instruction that is direct, systematic, and focuses on the sounds and letters that make up words, the meanings of words, and helping children read accurately and quickly.
“We know that reading instruction for struggling readers must be explicit, systematic, and allow sufficient time for student learning. We also know that the reading curriculum should include the five critical components that are fundamental to learning to read — phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension.”
The focus of this study, as much of the writing on this topic, is on how to assist struggling readers. While struggling readers show us what the critical issues are, the children who are not struggling are able to learn much more, much quicker, if they are also given exposure to the best teaching practices.
Unfortunately, as is commonly the case, teachers leave good students to fend for themselves on the mistaken assumption that they don’t need help. Mom and Dad can and should do things at home to enhance their child’s learning and intelligence.
So if the scientific evidence strongly proves that phonics instruction re-maps the brain for the better, why does the educational establishment, for the most part, continue to ignore the data and teach ineffective reading (and math) methods?
- Part of the answer may be found in the lobbying and monetary influence of textbook publishers, who follow fads for personal gain, rather than true research results.
- Part of the answer may be found in the egos of some university, educational professors pushing their own theories and agendas.
- Part of the answer can be found in the inertia and ennui of large government entities and schools to resist change.
Whatever the factors, it is clear that parents must not let their children be left to fend for themselves in school. Parents can follow the best practices of phonics reading instruction (and direct math instruction) with their children at home to ensure a great foundation for success.
A few teachers (but not all) have admitted to my friend, Joan, that they’re only in that profession for the 3-month, summer break. In 2010, the Kansas City school district scored lowest in the state of Missouri. Schools across the nation are struggling similarly. This may be a combination of faulty PFT teaching models, faulty PFT curriculum laws, disinterested parents, apathetic teachers, and/or traumatized children. Early reading the right way could help prevent this sad scenario.
A young mother herself, Chauntel, told me about having a mother who didn't prepare her for school, nor helped with learning or homework after school ("the schools will do it..."). Her mom’s lack of involvement affected Chauntel’s education and self-worth. Going to Job Corps for high school helped her turn her life around. She now uses The Godfrey Method with her children and is a proactive parent. “To a child, love is spelled, T-I-M-E”www.simpletruths.com
Eleanor, a college instructor, recently told me of Nevada state laws passed to test only the bright school children for "no child left behind." Only 40% of the state's children can actually pass the testing, so most of the children are not tested, to keep the state scores looking good. Her son was on the ‘approved’ testing list because of his good grades (she has always supplemented his education at home). What a dishonest travesty for our children!
Eleanor has also seen the affects of PFT’s teaching-model failures in her unprepared college students. She has to do a lot of remediation in the basics before she can actually teach her classes. Many of these students can only read simple words and sentences, and can’t study more than ten minutes, if at all. More and more students are entering college without good basic skills in reading, writing, and math, yet they want to be nurses, etc., so we lower the standards. Scary. Would you want a nurse who learned from lower standards to work on you?
One man, Mathew, pointed out how many of our historical leaders had no more than a 5th-grade education, yet their letters and writings show perfect sentence structure and grammar. Obviously their level of 5th-grade education was far beyond ours now!
Many young people now can’t read classic books from the past, such as Pride and Prejudice or Wuthering Heights, etc., because they don’t have enough sight-words memorized to cover old English style, and they can’t sound the words out, either. Instead, we dumb-down the classics into movies like Clueless, which is a fitting title. They would never be able to read or understand an ingenious book like Barbara Kingsolver’s, The Poisonwood Bible! Such a loss of collective national intellect!
Mathew also told about being taught the "Inventive Spelling" method used in his elementary school, which let children write and spell however they wanted, without correction or spelling rules. It was a struggle for him to fix later, but he brought himself up to speed in high school with a lot of effort. The other children in his class may not have been so motivated. Such confusion actually lowers a child’s self-esteem. Spelling properly is very important, especially if you want to be taken seriously.
Mathew’s experience reminded me of my friend Iona in Arizona in the 1970s. As a child, her elementary and elsewhere wanted to ‘clean up’ spelling by having similar sounds spelled the same, such as bite and lite. (She never did figure out how to spell properly.) The schools unofficially ‘standardized,’ or changed, the spelling of many words. While this sounds great in theory, it didn’t prepare the children for dealing with the real world. The movement didn’t stick, messed up decades of children, and has been tried again later, too.
Understanding the phonics rules, as given in the appendix, helps most children become excellent spellers without any need for “reform” methods. I’m so glad that my school teachers corrected my spelling. The corrections stuck in my brain and boosted my self-esteem with accomplishment! Don’t expect spell-checker to do it for you, either. I’ve found many mistakes and misunderstandings in spell-checker suggestions.
Government studies have shown that a tutor only needs 1½ hours per week to catch a sick student up with his school class. That’s about 20 minutes a day vs. 6 hours in school. Hartman Rector, Jr., claims that only 14 minutes a day with mom is worth more than 6 hours with a teacher. You are your child’s best teacher. She learns faster from mom or dad than others.
What are the 2 most crucial things, beyond the basics, that children need? – parent time and reading skills. One mom, Simcah, says that helping her kids learn their picture-letter phonics cards and reading stories are her favorite ways to spend time with them. It’s a wonderful way to bond and she loves to see their faces light up as they catch on.
Simcah has also said, “My 3-year-old son loves your phonics cards! He already knows all his letter sounds! This book [A Pretty Girl Was Alpha Bette] comes with the best phonics cards ever. My kids love the cards, and the instructions for teaching beginners are invaluable. I also love that the phonics letters are in the text of the story book, which teaches the kids to start looking at the text for the letters they know. The illustrations are beautiful and my kids love seeing the letters they know in the pictures on the page, too.”
Olivia, a young girl in first grade, had a teacher who said she just couldn’t focus and because of this, she could not learn. The teacher wanted her parents to put her on ADHD meds! Her mom knew that Olivia behaved just fine at home. She decided to use TGM phonics at home instead, and Olivia took off with reading. She’s not ADHD at all. She was just bored! The school’s methods weren’t keeping her interest, which was killing her love of reading.
There is hope! The Godfrey Method stresses the importance of teaching letter sounds, NOT letter names, as you know by now. This is one of the key basics for preparing children for school. The teachers may disagree.
Olivia could read before kindergarten, clearly gifted, but her mother had wisely never taught her the letter names. The teacher thought the child was failing because she said the sound- instead of the name- of each letter. What a joke. The failure here was the training of the teacher, as well as the public school system which measures such silly markers of ‘success.’ How can a child read and still fail ‘reading?’ Only in a state-mandated curriculum!
You, mom and dad, are the key. It's not rocket surgery!
