But one odd fact remains ... after 20 years or so of heavy reading, good readers are actually look-seeing ....except for new words. But one must start with phonics ... the alphabet "code."
BTW, it turns out that not all Egyptian hieroglyphics were not really "symbols," but sounds! IOW, a picture of a hawk did not necessarily mean "Hawk," but the "H" sound sort of thing. But just to make it interesting, sometimes the pictograph meant the picture!
BTW, I have actually ... me, no teacher here ... taught "dyslexic" kids to puzzle out words based on phonics ... Look at a "Hardy Boys" novel from the 1920s. You would find that a HS kid of today couldn't make it through a page!
You are right. The “experts” went from the fact that adult readers recognize words to the method of teaching whole words from the start. This is like teaching a baby to run before it can walk or even crawl. You can’t go backwards from the end result to the method. Why are they so stupid? Does it have something to do with being “educators”?