It is hard to imagine a topic which should be less controversial than teaching children how to read. From our Founding Fathers to today’s radical left, every major political force in American history has talked about the importance of education in developing better citizens. Yet, the left never wants to fix things that are broken, only things that are working, which is why they decided to reinvent the process of teaching children how to read back in the 1980s.
Traditionally, children are taught syllables as the building blocks of reading, after which they form those syllables into words. This is called “phonics.” Left-leaning educators developed the crude “Whole Word Method,” in which students are asked to just memorize a list of common words. Often these books include lots of pictures, so students just guess the words based on the pictures and are told by a clueless teacher that this is reading.
If you want to see the effects of the Whole Word Method, look no further than New York’s public school system, which has been using it for two decades now. As a result, an entire generation can’t unlock the doors that only reading holds the key to. Half of the children in grades three through eight were shown to not be proficient readers. These inner city New Yorkers will never have the same opportunities that their reading counterparts will have, no matter how many government welfare programs claim to offer them aid.
When asked what should be done to aid struggling inner city and minority populations, Phyllis Schlafly always pointed to quality instruction in reading as the best way to lift people up. She developed her bestselling First Reader and TurboReader systems to give every child a chance to learn reading with phonics. As always, Phyllis’s words show a level of wisdom that transcends political barriers. New York is abandoning their two decades of using the whole word method and switching to phonics. It is heartbreaking to think about how many young people have never reached their true potential as a result of this radical leftist experimentation. Don’t let your children be the next victims. Teach them how to read!
