Posted on 03/12/2016 5:36:05 PM PST by BruceDeitrickPrice
Quora, a discussion forum, posed the question: what are the biggest scams/cons in modern history?
Dozens of smart, entertaining answers have been left: sale of the Eiffel Tower, bottled water, Scientology, military deceptions, Madoff, the diamond engagement ring, etc.
One respondent says the central banking system is a huge con, which may be true. Trouble is, financial matters are very difficult so the con may not be obvious even after the matter is explained.
So that leaves one clear winner. The biggest con is making 50 million Americans totally or partially illiterate by using a method known not to work.
Rudolf Flesch wrote a famous book entitled 'Why Johnny Can't Read' explaining this matter in 1955. Furthermore, all systematic testing, going back a century, has shown the superiority of phonics. Anybody who studies the matter for 10 minutes will see the con.
And yet, and yet, this countrys Education Establishment has kept the scam in play since 1931. Crime-wise this is a remarkable achievement. Battered kids, unable to read, have poured out of the schools by the millions. The phony methods are under constant attack from many directions (for example, one of the main reasons people homeschool their kids is to save them from this con). I've written 25 articles myself, all intended to stop the public schools from continuing this abuse. You're now reading another one of those articles. But the scammers are somehow able to stay one step ahead of the law.
To fully appreciate the grandeur of the scam, consider the typical six-year-old. He shows up at school able to articulate thoughts and sentences like this: 'Some people think the Denver Broncos have a great defense but I think Cam Newton and the Panthers will pull it off.'
This kid is a fully formed 'native speaker.' He is in command of the language to the extent that he could tell a person from a foreign country how to speak the language. Research shows that this kid has a recognition vocabulary way over 15,000 words.
In a 1996 article, Phyllis Schlafly explained the beautiful significance of this foundation: 'The typical first-grader already knows the meaning of thousands of big words, such as hamburger, basketball, birthday, toothbrush, and even hippopotamus and Philadelphia. But the child will not be able to read those words unless he is taught the skills of sounding out the syllables. That's what we call phonics.'
Here is where the con comes in. The Education Establishment figured out a way to stop reading in its tracks. Children are made to memorize so-called sight-words. That is, you memorize a word not as representing sounds, but as a graphic design. This sort of visual memorization is very difficult and tedious. Many children cannot master even 100 sight-words in their first year of school.
Think about the dreadful significance of this factoid. The child knows many thousands of words but cannot read even1% of them, although they are in front of his eyes. If you don't have the key, you can't open the lock.
Sight-word instruction (also known as look-say, Whole Word, Dolch words, etc.) consumes a huge amount of energy and emotional involvement, but rewards the child with almost no progress. It is quite common for children to be declared failures by the second grade and to be placed in remediation classes. If their failure and frustration are more pronounced, the children are put on Ritalin. Note that drug companies are making money. The remediation industry is making money. Tutors are making money. This con is very lucrative for many people.
Think about this especially evil aspect. The average victim of the average con is an adult who can go to the police and complain. But here we have young children who have no idea what has been done to them. The children are miserable. All the fun of going to school has been destroyed. But even grown-ups can be slowly poisoned by a spouse and never know. That's the predicament of these children: damaged without recognition, recourse, or hope of rescue. And this damage, once inflicted, is usually lifelong, reducing career options and salaries.
Should you want to stop this crime and help the children, there are two options:
If you have children of your own, teach them to read at home when they are roughly five years old. This is quite doable and you will prevent the school from hurting them. [See article below.]
If you are worried about the community's children, you should ask the local schools what methods are being used. If lists of sight-words are being sent home with children in the first grade, you know a school is lost and corrupted. The way to stop this con is quite simple: no more sight-words.
Fight back, citizens.
There's a lovely little video on YouTube called "Reading is Easy." This shows you what should be normal, and will be again if we can stop this con.
VIDEO: Reading Is Easy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JV0tPGn-Ws
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ARTICLE: Teach your child to read early: http://www.improve-education.org/id81.html
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(Quora link: https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-of-the-biggest-scams-cons-in-modern-history
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Global warming is biggest scam and was not in the list.
Great post! 100% on target!
Good advice, thanks.
I learned the old-fashioned way, via phonics, and by the seventh grade I was reading Dostoevsky...and LOVING it!
I could “sound out” anything.
An ancient but wonderful method of teaching sight-reading music is “Solfeggio” which is the old “Do re mi” method of note-reading. It works in a similar fashion, by “sounding out” the intervals.
The real problem with Education is that it has been taken over by the large Tax Exempt foundations (Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford, etc) that do not want children to graduate with the skills necessary to go out in the world and make it on their own. They want workers.
Don’t listen to Phyllis Schafley, listen to Charlotte Iserbyt.
Here is a 45 minute interview with Norman Dodd who was the lead investigator for the majority in the Reece Commission on Large Tax Exempt Foundations, 1953/1954. The interview took place in the 1980s just before he died:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUYCBfmIcHM
I guess I should give him credit for being honest about his motivations. He was pretty open in his assertions that the role of public schools was to ensure that American kids were NOT educated -- but were being prepared to serve as laborers in an industrial economy. Even something as simple as kids lining up in the school yard after a loud bell rang on the outside of the building was supposed to mimic the whistle that sounded at the local factory at the start of every shift.
The Kenyanesian Usurpation is the biggest con in history.
He told us he was born a British subject.
That would make him NOT a natural born citizen.
My daughter had a learning disability where she had trouble with things like “sight words” and multiplication tables.
Their solution to the reading: Phonics. I was thrilled. She received individual instruction three days a week. She graduated college in May with honors.
The people running schools are idiots.
Phonics is THE way to learn.
Bookmark
My daughter was taught to read in kindergarten in three months with a system close to this one. It starts with the long vowels. I think I was taught this way as well. It’s from the 70’s. Everything is here:
http://wigowsky.com/services.html
I r a graduite of the Evelyn Woodhead Sped Reedin Kourse.
If your children are eager, teach them to read during their 3rd year. A book is a good baby-sitter.
We use the “look-say” method starting out with letters, phonemes, and syllables, not words. Flash cards are always effectual, for all ages.
I also sing in the Latin Choir and I often transcribe my harmony (alto) into shape notes so I can grasp and practice the parts that are more difficult for me. The shapes (Do-Re-Me) are amazingly effective in learning new music.
The best can sight-read hundreds and hundreds of songs.
Does that inhibit reading music?
Shape Note music uses the same staff, scales, key signatures, notation, and other symbols as standard music, with the exception that the body of the note is not always an oval (round) shape. It could be (in Walker's 7-shape system) a tiny trapezoid, crescent, diamond, flag, oval, square, or a triangle.
Anyone who can read "regular" music can read shape notes, it's just that for a-Capella 4-part singing, it's faster and easier for children and other beginner or untrained singers to match the pitch to the shape. Once you get the "DO" you can get all the intervals right and sing every part on the page, no matter what the key signature.
So if you’re learning to play Bach’s first Praelidium, you can get that in shape note? Or is it no longer necessary at that point?
Praeludium
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