We need a rational alphabet for the English language.
Semitic languages have been getting along quite well doing that for upwards of 5,000 years!.
Chinese takes it considerably further, as did the first written language in history, known as Sumerian it is an hieroglyph based written language that uses stylized images created with cuneiform wedges.
If you provide too much image you end up with unintelligible writing.
That's the reading part ~ now, how to learn to read? That's a wholly different topic. There you have to use phonics with some, whole word with others, and with others NOTHING AT ALL. I simply learned to read on my own and was always years ahead of the other kids. This started when i was 3 or 4 years of age.
what we need is to get the liberals that infest our ed.system out, stop using the kids in stupid experiments to create new lib robots and go back to the pre-1950 way of teaching reading - phonics, which is how you teach dyslexics to read, or any 3 year old. 1 problem, when your kids is so board in class, they may just grab a book and ignore the current lesson. I actually had to get my son’s school to stop letting him read in class to try to get him to pay attention.
Interestingly, the authors deal with this very question to an unusual degree, insisting that English is actually much more rational than many people think.
Always keep in mind that, by way of defending the indefensible, Whole Word, the Education Establishment filled the air with what was basically anti-English propaganda. English is just so crazy, we were told for decades, kids have no choice but to memorize the entire language word by word!!!
It’s my opinion that the complexity of English makes for a more complex mind.
Just don’t ask me to explain the failure of the Roman Numeral System, thank you.