Author: Bruce Deitrick Price
Hopefully, no one will forget our debt to Rudolf Flesch. He was a great man with a great mind.
Almost forty years ago, Flesch published Why Johnny STILL Can't Read, wherein he continued his crusade against Whole Word (AKA Whole Language, Sight-Words, and other aliases). In this book, Flesch attacked the Education Establishment and its counterfeit merchandise in a unique way. He pointed out that all the things the professors assert most loudly and proudly are nothing but alibis — a polite way of saying lies.
Has there ever been a field, in all of human history, that could be best defined by its alibis and lies? And not just a few of them. There are ten big ones. Identifying and illuminating them are where Flesch's genius shone.
Our Education Establishment, in its dedication to falsity, is almost superhuman. After all these years, these people are still pushing the same inferior theories and methods. Their gimmicks are disproven by almost all research and experience. These faux reading experts can do nothing but build a case on lies.
The Education Establishment tells these lies because its partisans know that the public wants desperately to believe they are true. The educrats are happy to let you have your illusions, as these are the intellectual basis for their dumbing down of America.
The first lie is "Everything Is Hunky-Dory." Isn't that comforting and reassuring? Parents with kids who can hardly read a word are naturally worried and nervous. Teachers, in many different ways, are trained to say everything is perfect, your child is on track to be a lifelong reader, don't worry.
The next lie is "We Do Teach Phonics." The context here is that parents hear how other schools teach reading and ask teachers, What about phonics? Sometimes the teachers will claim that phonics doesn't work. But the parents might know more than the teachers. Then it's simpler to say, Of course we teach phonics. The professors might concoct debased versions of phonics (e.g., intrinsic or analytic), or they cripple phonics with counterproductive details, so children get phonics in name only.
Another way to undermine the claimed superiority of phonics is to say, "No One Method Is Best." Probably this lie has been uttered billions of times because it's handy in so many situations. If parents have a good argument for anything, the teacher dismisses it by creating a promiscuous justification for everything else.
The next lie is used like a flamethrower throughout the reading wars. Professors of education disdainfully sneer that phonics is a moot point, as "English Isn't Phonetic." Flesch did his own calculations and concluded that English is about 97% phonetic. Other experts suggest similar or higher numbers. But every English word, even if irregular, is still phonetic. You would need a word like XY4Z, pronounced "sailboat," to have genuinely non-phonetic language. English has nothing like that, and the professors know it. Full Story - American Thinker
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