[hinckley buzzard]

yep. Began to learn reading in 1952. I can still hear the teacher telling a student having trouble with a word--"sound it out."

Near as I can recall, every single kid learned to read at a functional level.

[Bob]

I hit early elementary school in the early 50s also. We learned phonics. This was in suburban New Jersey, just outside of Camden. And yes, we all learned to read, some better than others, but we all were reading by second grade.

[jacquej]

I learned phonics in the first grade (1948 or 9). I loved phonics, as it was such a neat decoding trick. I loved the worksheets, too.

When my four children were little - in the 60s, I taught them all phonics (in a casual way, at the supermarket, reading children’s books, etc. as soon as they showed an interest in deciphering, long before they went to school.

All of them knew how to read before kindergarten, and all of them hated the “reading systems” that were being taught. They found them tedious as entrapping.

All are still avid readers, and figured out that self-learning was much more fun than “school learning”.