I taught 1st grade in Boston from 1954-1956.
Phonics was used to teach reading.
When my own kids attended school in another city in the 60’s and 70’s phonics was out.
I learned to read about 1950. Dick, Jane, Spot and Puff for me.
I was taught Phonics in the very late 50’s as I learned to read in a private school. Some years later in public school, my reading and comprehension was so good that it was off the scale. I still read a lot thats to a great start.
I learned via phonics in the mid 50s, got in before the ship sailed.
We home schooled. Teaching phonics was easy. With very little effort our daughter (now 27) was reading at (public school) 12th grade level by age 11.
What turned out to be a sort of funny (unexpected) result was that she was able to read books quite well that were a lot ahead of her maturity level. It was a never ending stream of “Daddy what does (insert big word here) mean?” Finally we gave her a dictionary and asked her to look up at least some of the words.
It also meant we had to screen what she was reading because in order to get books that were on par with her reading ability, many times the *content* was somewhat ahead of what an 11 year old should be exposed to.